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The GuardianMumtaz Qadri, who killed Punjab governor, showered with rose petals by lawyers as he arrives in court
Saeed Shah in Islamabad | Wednesday January 5 2011 18.57 GMT -
The increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society was today laid bare when mainstream religious organisations applauded the murder of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, earlier this week and his killer was showered with rose petals as he appeared in court.
Taseer was buried in his home town of Lahore. The 66-year-old was assassinated yesterday by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his police bodyguards, after he had campaigned for reform of the law on blasphemy.
Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security.
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Qadri was in the Barelvi sect, which is followed by most Muslims in Pakistan. However, on the issue of the blasphemy law, the Barelvi clerics had joined hands with the pro-Taliban Deobandi. The issue was sparked by Taseer's championing of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy late last year.
Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/pakistan-religious-organisations-salman-taseer
Suspected Assassin in Pakistan Was Seen as RiskBy WAQAR GILLANI and CARLOTTA GALL
Published: January 5, 2011
LAHORE, Pakistan — The killer of a prominent secular politician had been removed from a special police branch several years ago because of his extremist religious views, but was still assigned to an elite security force tasked with guarding the victim, a senior police official said Wednesday.
It was not yet clear whether the assignment as a body guard to the slain politician, the governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, was an oversight or part of a larger plot by extremist groups. But the profile of the 26-year-old assassin, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, raised alarming questions about the vetting and screening of security personnel, former police officials and associates of the former governor said.
The two men — victim and killer — have quickly come to represent the competing forces struggling for the soul of this deeply restive country. Mr. Qadri appeared before a magistrate in Islamabad and was showered by hundreds of supporters with rose petals and garlands, even as he was charged with murder and terrorism.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners and party workers pressed into the grounds of the Governor’s House in Lahore to attend the funeral of Mr. Taseer, a successful businessman and prominent voice for secularism in the country who had recently become the focus of religious fury for speaking out against the nation’s strict blasphemy laws.
Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/world/asia/06pakistan.html?_r=1&hp