Two months after (Pakistan) Punjab governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard in Lahore for his opposition to the country’s harsh blasphemy law, another high-profile Pakistani, Cabinet minister Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated in Islamabad on Wednesday morning over the same issue.
Mr Bhatti, 42, the only Christian minister in the Pakistani government and an outspoken critic of the blasphemy law, was shot dead by alleged Pakistani Taliban militants as he was being driven out of his mother’s house, close to his official residence, at around 11.20 am local time. He was on his way to attend a Cabinet meeting. The meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, observed two minutes of silence.
Three to four gunmen in a white Suzuki Mehran car ambushed the minister’s Toyota Corolla Altis, firing indiscriminately at him while sparing his driver, Gul Sher, the vehicle’s only other occupant, the police said. He was hit with at least 20 bullets in the face, chest and stomach. He used to visit his mother every morning.
The four attackers had been waiting in a car just outside Mr Bhatti’s mother’s house. The minister’s regular security detail was not with him at the time of the incident, the police said.
“The minister received at least 20 bullet wounds and was rushed to Shifa International Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries,” a police official said.
Mr Bhatti, a member of the ruling PPP, was a member of an unofficial committee of Parliament examining changes in the blasphemy law. It did not have any official status, and Prime Minister Gilani had made it clear recently that there would be no change in the law.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the killing on behalf of his group. He told a news agency on the phone from an undisclosed location that anyone proposing changes in the blasphemy law “will meet the same fate”.
Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani said the minister had been provided with two security squads — one of the elite Frontier Corps and another of the police — for his protection, but he had himself directed that they not be deployed at his residence and wait for him at his office.
“There was no squad and protection when the four men opened fire at him when he had gone to meet his mother at her residence”, Mr Durrani added. He said all routes leading out of Islamabad had been sealed and mobile squads directed to check all Mehran cars.
President Asif Ali Zardari, who was in Karachi, condemned the killing and sought a report from interior minister Rehman Malik. The Prime Minister also condemned the killing and visited Shifa Hospital, where Mr Bhatti had been rushed immediately after the incident.
Interior minister Rehman Malik said the government would do all it could to bring the killers to book. “We will not spare the killers and will punish them. They will be arrested soon and awarded exemplary punishment”, he added.
The Vatican also condemned the murder of Mr Bhatti, a Roman Catholic, as an “unspeakable” act of violence.