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Christian Cabinet Minister Shot Dead In Islamabad

02.03.2011 16:00

By RFE/RL

Pakistan's minister for religious minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, who had been calling for changes in the country's blasphemy law, has been killed in a drive-by shooting.

The killing -- the second such attack this year on a senior figure who had opposed Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law -- drew strong condemnation from the Pakistani government, as well as the Vatican and the UN's human rights chief.

Bhatti, Pakistan's only Christian government minister, was driving to a cabinet meeting from his residence in the capital, Islamabad.

“A woman was also sitting with him in the car. They separated the woman and driver [Gul Sher], then fired a burst on [Bhatti]," an eyewitness told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "Then they looked and fired another burst to ensure that he was dead. Then Gul Sher took him to the hospital. The attackers were driving in a white Mehran car. Two attackers were out and some were sitting in the car."

Bhatti was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Threatened By Extremists

Police have launched an investigation and cordoned off all main roads leading to the capital, but the killers escaped. The police have taken three eyewitnesses into protective custody, according to Pakistani media reports.

Islamabad police chief Wajid Durrani told reporters that police knew that Bhatti had been threatened by extremists. But he said the minister had no police protection when he was attacked.

"The protection [squad] that had been given to [the minister] was not present there," Durrani said. "Now, upon asking, we have been told that the minister instructed them to wait in the office. We had provided [the minister] with a police squad and a paramilitary squad. Moreover, we had provided him with guards at his government house. We are further investigating who stopped the squad from going with the minister -- whether it was the minister's instruction or it was something else."

Bhatti is the second senior government leader killed in the capital since the beginning of this year, ostensibly for opposing the country's controversial blasphemy law.

On January 4, Salman Taseer, the governor of the eastern province of Punjab, who had been an outspoken critic of the law, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.

'Bodyguards Can't Save Me'

In an interview with the U.S.-based "Christian Post" last month, Bhatti said he had received threats from the Taliban because of his stance on blasphemy. "I don't believe that bodyguards can save me after the assassination [of Salman Taseer]. I believe in the protection from heaven," he said.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for killing Bhatti. Reuters quotes a Taliban spokesman, Sajjad Mohmand, as saying by telephone from an undisclosed location that the minister was a blasphemer.

The French AFP news agency quotes witnesses as saying up to 100 Christians rallied in the central city of Multan demanding that those responsible be caught.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani visited the hospital and offered condolences to Bhatti's relatives. "Such acts will not deter the government's resolve to fight terrorism and extremism," he said, and pledged that the killers would be punished.

Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, denounced "a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive, and humanist voice in Pakistan." He also urged the federal government and provincial governments "to take a strong stand against these murderers to save the very essence of Pakistan."

Swift Condemnation

The assassination drew swift condemnation from Western officials and Christian leaders.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton urged Pakistan to ensure justice, expressing deep concern about "the climate of intolerance" and violence linked to the debate on the controversial blasphemy law.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she was "shocked and outraged" by the assassination, adding that it was also an attack on "the values of tolerance and respect."

"The intolerance toward minorities, particularly religious minorities, that we are seeing, not only in Pakistan but elsewhere in the region -- the attack on Christians in Iraq, the attack on the Copts in Egypt, the attack on minority Islam sects in Pakistan and elsewhere -- is a matter of deep distress to me personally and to our government," she said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the murder was "absolutely brutal and unacceptable," telling the House of Commons that it shows "what a huge problem we have in our world with intolerance."

The UN's human rights chief, Navi Pillay, called the killing a "tragedy" and urged the Pakistani government to "honor the courageous stand of Mr. Bhatti and Mr. Taseer" by reforming the blasphemy law.

The Vatican called the slaying an act of "terrible gravity" that underlined the "dramatic urgency of the defense of religious freedom and of Christians" in Pakistan.

And at a news conference in Berlin, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle paid tribute to Bhatti's "great personal courage."

"Everything must be done now to find the culprits for this brutal crime and make them take responsibility," he said. "The protection of all religious groups in Pakistan, including Christians, must be ensured."

Under Pakistan's blasphemy law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty, but activists say the vague terminology has led to its misuse.

Liberal Pakistanis and rights groups believe the law to be dangerously discriminatory against the country's tiny minority groups, chiefly Hindus and Christians.

Sense Of Insecurity

Taseer had sought a presidential pardon for 45-year-old Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sentenced to death in November by a municipal court. Peasants in her village near Lahore, the capital of Punjab, had accused her of committing blasphemy.

Bhatti had strongly condemned the murder of Taseer. Dr. Arish Kumar, a Sikh lawmaker who represents religious minorities in the Pakistani parliament, says this latest assassination will add to the sense of insecurity among non-Muslim Pakistanis.

"There is sense of deprivation. We cannot say something," Kumar says. "As far as I know, [Bhatti] was killed in the same case as that of the governor of Punjab."

Christians, who make up about 2 percent of Pakistan's population, have been especially concerned about the law, saying it offers them no protection.

written by Abubakar Siddique, with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal and agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/commentary_dynamics_of_outrage_silence_in_pakistan/2325953.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.