Pakistani judge delays hearing for jail U.S. diplomat

A Pakistani court on Thursday postponed a hearing until March 14 for a captured American diplomat accused of shooting and killing two men, a government official said.

Thursday hearing was postponed after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested that given three weeks to respond to questions from the Lahore High Court on whether Raymond Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity, according to Khawaja Haris, a senior government official lawyer.

Davis was not in court, nor was his lawyer or a representative of the U.S. Embassy, Haris said.

Last week, a Pakistani court Davis remain in custody for 14 days. Another hearing on a separate issue will be held on the matter later this month. Davis' attorney has filed a petition, challenging jurisdiction of the Court on the case. A judge will hear arguments on Feb. 25.

Davis said he was attacked by two men when he drove through a busy district of Lahore, according to the American Embassy in Pakistan.

Lahore Police Chief Aslam has Taren Davis' claim is rejected, the men he shot in self-defense, told reporters, "It was clearly murder."

Taren acknowledged that the two men were armed and that one of them pointed his gun at Davis. However, he said, the man not to shoot because "all the bullets were in their room."

A police report in the court appears to contradict that assertion, saying that the Boards of both the victims' guns were empty.

The report quotes witnesses said Davis first fired at the victims of the inside of his car, got out and shot twice in the back of one of the victims.

On Wednesday, an American official who has seen the first report of the Lahore police after the shooting incident, the report indicates that it was an attempted robbery.

According to the official, who spoke on condition of not being identified, the first police report states that two Pakistanis were earlier in the day robbed by two men slain in the Davis shootings. In addition, the U.S. official said the mobile phones of the robbery victims were found on

the bodies of two men who were shot, and the robbery victims statements involving the two dead men.

The U.S. official also said that Davis shot only from within his vehicle.

Meanwhile, a senior State Department official separately confirmed the details in the first minutes of the two Pakistanis who earlier in the day robbed by two men slain in the Davis shootings.

Davis' arrest has strained relations between the United States and Pakistan, a key ally in the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, and many Pakistanis are furious about the incident. During several protests earlier this month, hard-line Pakistani clerics condemned

shootings and demanded the government does not release to Davis of the U.S. government.

Davis has held since the shooting on Jan. 27, U.S. officials call an illegal detention.

He is a contractor for the group Hyperion Protective Consultants LLC, and was connected to the American Embassy in Pakistan terms as a "technical and administrative officer," said American officials, who say it falls under the label of "diplomat."

Under international agreements, diplomatic passports are people who granted diplomatic immunity, the State Department says, and Davis wore such a passport.

The United States says Davis was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, but worked at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore at the time of the shooting.