The US citizen Raymond Davis, indicted earlier on Wednesday on two murder charges in Pakistan has been acquitted and released after a deal to pay blood money to the victims' families was reached. The Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said, the deal ends a long-simmering diplomatic stand-off between Pakistan and the United States. The court first indicted him but the families later told court that they have accepted the blood money and they have pardoned him. The court acquitted him in the murder case. Raymond Davis, 36, shot dead two Pakistanis in the eastern Punjab city of Lahore on January 27 following what he described as an attempted armed robbery. He said he acted in self-defence and the United States says he has diplomatic immunity and should have been immediately repatriated.