London:
Raymond Davis, who gunned down two men in Lahore, sparking a diplomatic crisis between Islamabad and Washington, is a CIA agent, a media report here said.
The Guardian has dramatically revealed that Davis, 36, was on assignment at the time he shot dead two men who had pulled up near his car Jan 25.
Davis was arrested, but the Obama administration is demanding his release on the ground that he is an "administrative and technical official" attached to its Lahore consulate and enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The Guardian report said Davis is a former Special Forces soldier and employed with the CIA.
"It's beyond a shadow of a doubt," a senior Pakistani intelligence official was quoted as saying.
This may make matters more complicated as Davis has been insisting that he acted in self-defence when an attempt was being made to rob him.
Pakistani prosecutors have said that Davis used excessive force as he fired 10 shots and got out of his car to shoot dead one of the two men who was fleeing.
"It went way beyond what we define as self-defence. It was not commensurate with the threat," a police official told the Guardian.
Davis's CIA status is known to the Pakistani government.
Analysts have cautioned about Egyptian-style demonstrations if Davis is set free. The government, which is worried about a possible backlash, says it needs until March 14 to decide whether Davis enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The Lahore shooting had led to a third death when a speeding US consulate vehicle coming to the rescue of Davis overran a motorcyclist.
Pakistani officials believe that the speeding vehicles' occupants also were from the CIA.
The US didn't allow Pakistani officials to question the two men and Sunday a Pakistani intelligence official said they had left the country.
"They have flown the coop, they are already in America," he was quoted as saying.
US officials have threatened to cut the $1.5 billion of annual aid to Pakistan if Davis is not released, and they put bilateral relations on hold.
The case took a dramatic turn Feb 6 when the widow of one of the victims of the Lahore shooting, Muhammad Fahim, committed suicide, turning public opinion further against the jailed American.
The woman apparently feared that her husband's killer would be let off by the Pakistan government.