This isn't gonna be good for bi-lateral relations.
SLAMABAD, Pakistan - A U.S. consular employee fatally shot two Pakistani men who might have been trying to rob him while he drove in the eastern city of Lahore, and another American vehicle at the scene hit and killed a passerby, police said Thursday.
Umar Saeed, a police officer who oversees the teeming district where the incident took place, said two Pakistani men on a motorbike approached the U.S. official's Honda sedan and that the American had apparently shot them in self-defense. Another police official said the two men were each carrying pistols.
Saeed said another U.S. vehicle was traveling with the sedan and that the American then fled the scene in that car. As it sped away, it hit a motorcyclist, killing him, Saeed said. Saeed said the American involved in the shootout was in custody while police were investigating the incident, but he declined to say whether others were being held.
Even if U.S. officials are cleared of wrongdoing, the incident could be explosive in a nation where anti-American sentiment is strong. Some Pakistani news channels covering the episode raised the possibility that the Americans involved were employees of Blackwater, an American security contractor, now known as Xe Services, that is widely viewed in Pakistan as a sort of mercenary agency.
Alberto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that one U.S. citizen who works at the Lahore consulate was involved in the shootout. He said U.S. officials were still trying to determine what happened and whether other U.S. officials were involved.
Rodriguez said he did not know whether the detained American has diplomatic immunity. Police said they were checking that.
Saeed said the American in custody was moved from one police station after an angry crowd gathered outside, chanting anti-American slogans. Pakistanis who congregated at the scene of the shootout burned tires.
"On the one hand, Americans are killing our people in drone attacks, and on the other, they have started killing our people in the streets," said Mohammed Shahid, 28, one of the protesters who gathered at the scene. He referred to CIA missile strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan's mountainous border region.
SLAMABAD, Pakistan - A U.S. consular employee fatally shot two Pakistani men who might have been trying to rob him while he drove in the eastern city of Lahore, and another American vehicle at the scene hit and killed a passerby, police said Thursday.
Umar Saeed, a police officer who oversees the teeming district where the incident took place, said two Pakistani men on a motorbike approached the U.S. official's Honda sedan and that the American had apparently shot them in self-defense. Another police official said the two men were each carrying pistols.
Saeed said another U.S. vehicle was traveling with the sedan and that the American then fled the scene in that car. As it sped away, it hit a motorcyclist, killing him, Saeed said. Saeed said the American involved in the shootout was in custody while police were investigating the incident, but he declined to say whether others were being held.
Even if U.S. officials are cleared of wrongdoing, the incident could be explosive in a nation where anti-American sentiment is strong. Some Pakistani news channels covering the episode raised the possibility that the Americans involved were employees of Blackwater, an American security contractor, now known as Xe Services, that is widely viewed in Pakistan as a sort of mercenary agency.
Alberto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that one U.S. citizen who works at the Lahore consulate was involved in the shootout. He said U.S. officials were still trying to determine what happened and whether other U.S. officials were involved.
Rodriguez said he did not know whether the detained American has diplomatic immunity. Police said they were checking that.
Saeed said the American in custody was moved from one police station after an angry crowd gathered outside, chanting anti-American slogans. Pakistanis who congregated at the scene of the shootout burned tires.
"On the one hand, Americans are killing our people in drone attacks, and on the other, they have started killing our people in the streets," said Mohammed Shahid, 28, one of the protesters who gathered at the scene. He referred to CIA missile strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Pakistan's mountainous border region.
