Pakistan Punjab’s liberal governor, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his security guard here on Tuesday for terming the blasphemy law a “black law”.
The security guard — identified as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri — shot the governor when he was about to get into his car at Kohsar Market, in Islamabad’s posh Sector
F-6/3. Qadri, a member of the Punjab police’s Elite Force, surrendered after firing nine bullets at the governor and told the police that he had “punished” Taseer for opposing the blasphemy law and supporting blasphemy convict Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman. “I did what my religion demanded of me. I killed him for Islam, not for anything else,” a police official quoted him as saying.
Interior minister Rehman Malik said investigators are looking into whether Qadri was acting alone or whether he was supported by a radical group. “He was a liberal man and that was why he was killed. The killer has confessed that he assassinated him for opposing the blasphemy law,” Mr Malik added.
Taseer, a close friend of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, was involved in a bitter war of words with the Opposition Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and had told the media he would ask the President to pardon blasphemy convict Aasia Bibi. Mr Malik said the PPP had lost a great leader and worker in Salman Taseer and would do everything it could to bring the culprits to justice.