Assassinated Pakistani governor laid to rest

Hundreds of mourners gathered at Governor Salman Taseer’s residence in Lahore. Large crowds of workers of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party chanted slogans against opposition parties.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi were seen arriving for the funeral procession.

Security was high as Taseer’s coffin was driven in by an ambulance. The coffin was transported to the burial site by helicopter.

Initial reports suggest Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard because of his opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy law. Rights groups say the law is often exploited by religious extremists and ordinary Pakistanis to settle personal scores.

As the former governor was laid to rest, 500 Pakistani religious scholars warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination could suffer the same fate.

The scholars also noted the “courage” and religious zeal of the killer, saying his action has made Muslims around the world proud.

The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group of scholars making the veiled threat is from a moderate school of Islam in Pakistan. It is a vocal critic of Taliban militants who are violently opposed to the government and its ally Washington.

Although moderate, they have been leading protests in favour of the blasphemy law.

Blasphemy law

Islamist groups have been angered by what they believe are government plans to change or scrap the law.

The assassination comes as Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was attempting to rally support for the government after a leading partner withdrew from the coalition over fuel price policies.

The blasphemy law came under the spotlight after a court in November sentenced a Christian mother of four, Asia Bibi, to death in a case stemming from a village dispute.

The law has widespread support in Pakistan, which is more than 95 per cent Muslim, and most politicians are loath to be seen as soft on the defence of Islam.

Taseer visited Bibi in prison in a campaign for her release.

He wrote on his Twitter page last Friday: “I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightist pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I’m the last man standing.”

Taseer being killed in broad daylight has plunged the country into a new political crisis, while Gilani has urged for calm and three days of mourning.

Too late to put the radical genie back in the bottle?
The killing in Pakistan of the Governor of Punjab by his own bodyguard on Tuesday, marks a devastating new high water mark both inside and outside that country, writes Jon Snow.

It comes in the wake of a year in which Christian communities all over the Middle East and beyond have come under pressure.

Against a backdrop in which Iraq has proved the infernal crucible for religious intolerance in which a thousand more of the country’s Christians have had to flee and in which many have been killed – in one instance amid the bombing of their church – it is important to take stock.

New year saw the attack on a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria in Egypt in which 21 Egyptian Christians died.

Now there is the Pakistan assassination in which pressure on Christians has reportedly again played a part. The Governor, Salman Taseer had been prominent in attempting to defend Asia Bibi. She’s a Christian who was condemned to death last November under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws – laws Mr Taseer had also been more than prominent in attempting to reverse.

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