Pakistan minister shot dead
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan Federal Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead on Wednesday morning by unidentified assailants while on the way from his residence to attend a cabinet meeting.
Published: Fri 4 Mar 2011, 1:17 AM
Last updated: Tue 19 May 2020, 6:00 PM
Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, a Christian, was an outspoken advocate of a review of the blasphemy laws enacted by military dictator Gen. Ziaul Haq in the 1980s. The killers left behind leaflets claiming to be members of an erstwhile unknown group ‘Fidayeen-e-Muhammad’ and ‘Al Qaeda in Punjab’.
But officials said the killing was linked to the blasphemy controversy. Bhatti became the second high-profile government figure to lose his life over this issue this year. Earlier in January, Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by a bodyguard who said he was angry that the politician opposed the blasphemy laws. Taseer’s killer Mumtaz Qadrin was hailed by religious groups as a hero.
Police said the unidentified assailants intercepted Bhatti after he emerged from his residence in Islamabad’s I-8 Sector, an area known for frequent violent incidents. He had no security escort. The killers stopped his car at a busy spot, pulled the driver and Bhatti’s niece out of the vehicle and then sprayed bullets on the minister who succumbed to injuries before being shifted to hospital.
The gruesome murder cast a pall of gloom in the country, evoking condemnation both at home and abroad. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani called for a thorough probe, while prominent human rights activists I.A. Rehman and Asma Jehangir condemned the murder and blamed the government for failure to check the spread of bigotry and intolerance. “It is the second such horrific slaughter inextricably linked to the earlier terrible murder of Governor Salman Taseer by his own bodyguard for the same reason,” analyst Talaat Masood said.
Former foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar said the horrific incident has dealt another body blow to the image of the country and further scared the enlightened and liberal segments of society.
City police chief Durrani claimed that the minister himself had asked his security escort to wait for him in his office and left the residence unguarded. ?But Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan described it as a security lapse.
Bhatti, had been aware of the danger, saying in a video-taped message meant for broadcast in the event of his death that he was being threatened by the Taleban and Al Qaeda. The threats would not deter him from speaking for persecuted Christians and other minorities, he said. “I will die to defend their rights,” he said on the tape released on Wednesday.
Bhatti’s relatives, friends and many TV anchors confirmed that the minister had been receiving serious threats ever since the president had assigned him to head a panel for review of the blasphemy laws in the wake of death sentence awarded to a Christian peasant worker Aasia Bibi. His repeated requests to the prime minister for providing adequate security were ignored despite the fact that he was clearly marked by terrorists as their next target.
news@khaleejtimes.com
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