Pakistan’s governor of Punjab was shot dead near his Islamabad home yesterday, in a brazen political assassination that threatens to sink the nuclear-armed country ever deeper into chaos.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who is facing a fight for survival after losing his parliamentary majority, immediately appealed for calm with memories fresh of riots sparked by previous political killings in Pakistan.
Officials said Salman Taseer, 66, who was appointed governor of Pakistan’s most politically important and populous pro-vince in 2008, was killed by one of his bodyguards opposed to his public criticism of controversial blasphemy laws.
It was the most high-profile political killing in Pakistan since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007.
Mr Taseer was one of the most moderate voices in the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and personified a liberal elite, often criticised as detached from the impoverished masses and free from the emotive tug of conservative Islam.
Spent cartridges and blood stained the road in Islamabad’s upmarket F6 sector, just a short distance from where Mr Taseer kept a home, witnesses said.
“He was a very good friend, a politician and a businessman. He was a national hero we have lost him,” said Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
He named the assassin as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a guard assigned to the governor on at least five or six previous occasions.
“He confessed that he killed the governor because he had called the blasphemy law a black law,” Mr Malik said.
Mr Taseer was outspoken against the Taliban and Islamist militants hunkered down in the country’s northwest, who have also made increasing inroads into Punjab in recent years, and most recently against blasphemy laws.
Rights activists say existing legislation encourages Islamist extremism and the issue shot back to the headlines late last year after a Punjab court sentenced a Christian mother-of-five to death for insulting the Prophet Mohammad.
“Taseer showed himself to be a rare politician, willing to risk his life in espousing an unambiguous position against discrimination and abuse,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at US-based Human Rights Watch.
Witnesses shook with fear after the attack, recounting to AFP the moments they heard gunfire puncture the otherwise peaceful cold afternoon in what is one of the most desirable residential districts of the capital.
“The governor used to visit the market frequently on foot. He used to go shopping here,” said 50-year-old local resident Mazhar Iqbal.
“When I heard the gun fire I came out. I only glimpsed the governor from a distance as he was being put in a vehicle.”
Analysts said threats on Mr Taseer’s life and the assassination underscored how deeply religious extremism had penetrated society, just days after businesses closed across Pakistan to protest against any softening of the blasphemy law.
Prime Minister Gilani appealed to PPP workers and supporters to remain calm and allow time for a proper investigation, announcing a state funeral for Mr Taseer and three days of national mourning.
Dozens of PPP supporters took to streets in Punjab’s capital Lahore, burning tyres and blocking traffic yesterday, as shops quickly closed, witnesses said.