Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan —
Pakistani authorities have arrested a U.S. Consulate employee who shot and killed two men he thought were going to rob him in the eastern city of Lahore, and say they will pursue murder charges against him in a case likely to inflame anti-American sentiments in the nuclear-armed state.

Police brought the man to court Friday, where a judge ordered that he be held in custody for an additional six days while investigators continue to probe the case. Police have identified him as Raymond Davis and said he works as a technical advisor in the Lahore consulate, but U.S. Embassyofficials in Islamabad would not confirm his identity and declined to discuss the case.

The employee has told police he was in his car and fired at the two men in self-defense Thursday after they approached on a motorcycle and pointed a handgun at him. Relatives of one of the dead men say the men were armed with pistols for their own protection, and that the consulate employee, an American citizen, was unjustified in firing at them.
After the employee called the consulate to report the shooting, a second car, a Land Cruiser, was sent to the scene. According to police, the driver of the Land Cruiser drove the wrong way down a one-way street and ran over a pedestrian on a motorcycle, killing him.

The issue of American diplomats and security officials traveling through the country while carrying firearms is extremely sensitive in Pakistan. In 2009, Pakistani newspapers carried reports of U.S. diplomats in the northwest city of Peshawar carrying assault rifles while traveling through the city. Those reports were never verified. Under Pakistani law, officials with embassies and foreign missions can possess firearms but need permission from the Pakistani Foreign Office. Other foreigners are not allowed to possess firearms. Pakistanis must obtain a license to carry a firearm.

Such reports have stoked the intense enmity many Pakistanis harbor for the U.S., an animosity based on the belief that America exploits Pakistan for its own purposes and regards the South Asian nation as subservient. By Friday, the anti-U.S. backlash produced by the Lahore shooting was beginning to build.

Protests broke out in Karachi, where about 100 demonstrators burned the U.S. flag, and in Islamabad, where protesters held up a banner that read, "The American should be hanged." In Lahore, about 200 demonstrators led by relatives of the two dead men burned tires and blocked streets to protest the shooting. The English-language daily The Nation splashed a front-page headline that read, "'American Rambo' goes berserk in Lahore.'"

In announcing the government's intent to pursue a murder case against the consulate employee involved in the shooting, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters in Lahore that authorities would not bow to any pressure from the U.S. in handling the case.

"No suspect will be given any VIP treatment," Sanaullah said.

The shooting case hinges on the actions of the two men on the motorcycle and what their intentions were. According to Sanaullah, the consulate employee has explained to investigators that he had just been to an ATM and was driving in busy Lahore traffic when the two men on a motorcycle intercepted his car. When one of them pointed a handgun at him, he fired at both men. One of the men died at the scene; the other died later at a local hospital.

However, according to Sanaullah, relatives of one of the men killed, Faizan Haider, said the shooting was unjustified, adding that Haider had a license to carry firearms and that both did so for personal protection.

"There are many requirements to claim self-defense," Sanaullah said. "It's not like you can say, 'Someone was looking at me and I fired on him because I thought he might harm me.' It cannot be like that."

Sanaullah said authorities are seeking the driver of the Land Cruiser involved in the collision with the bystander, and want consulate officials to turn him over to the custody of police. Asked whether both men might be protected by diplomatic immunity, Sanaullah said that would be up to the courts to decide.