Photo from 2011 shows Raymond Davis being taken to court after he gunned down two Pakistani men on the streets of Lahore.?File 

Raymond Davis ? the CIA operative who sparked a diplomatic row after gunning down two men on the streets of Lahore in January 2011 ? has penned his side of the story for the first time in a memoir titled 'The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis'.

Davis became the centre of controversy in Pakistan moments after local police registered a case against him on charges of killing two Pakistani men at Qurtaba Chowk in downtown Lahore. A third Pakistani man was struck and killed by a vehicle that was reportedly racing to Davis' aid.

The violent confrontation escalated into a diplomatic crisis, making front-page headlines across the world and straining ties between Islamabad and Washington, as US policymakers pressed for diplomatic immunity for Davis and pushed for his immediate release.

Book cover from Amazon.com

According to an Amazon.com introduction, the book ? released on June 27, 2017 ? offers "an up-close and personal look at the 2011 incident in Lahore, Pakistan, that led to his imprisonment and the events that took place as diplomats on both sides of the bargaining table scrambled to get him out".

A former soldier, Davis had experience with the US Special Forces and ran a small security company, according to public US records.

US officials never released details about Davis' precise job in Pakistan, saying only he was a "member of the administrative and technical staff" of the Islamabad embassy and traveled on a diplomatic passport.

The CIA contractor spent 49 days in Pakistani custody, and was released on March 16, 2011 after the families of the two slain men reached an agreement and were paid $2.4 million in blood money. The Lahore High Court acquitted him on all charges and Davis was flown out of Pakistan.