Political killing dashes liberal hopes in Pakistan

PAKISTAN: The cold-blooded murder of leading politician Salman Taseer by a policeman is a huge setback for liberal campaigners in Pakistan and shows how deeply religious extremism has penetrated society.

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, a bearded commando from an elite force responsible for protecting Pakistani VIPs, was shown grinning in a woolly hat after pumping nearly 30 bullets into Taseer’s body outside a posh coffee shop.

Officials said he volunteered for duty that day, made sure his weapon was fully armed and then waited for his boss to walk towards his waiting car, before reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar”, opening fire and surrendering.

No other policeman or guard at the shopping centre, regularly frequented by Westerners, apparently made any attempt to overpower the assassin.

Regardless of whether he acted alone or as part of a wider conspiracy, commentators said that for an elite government policeman to share the ideology of Taliban fanatics, shows how mainstream extremism has become.

“The shooting is evidence that it is not necessary for extremists to be in the garb of the Taliban, with their beards and turbans. They exist everywhere and come in all forms,” wrote English-language newspaper The News.

“The killing of the governor by a member of his own security team could mean that even fewer will speak out on such issues... Extremism holds us in a vice. Will we ever be able to break free?” it added.

Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was a determined secularist, but little by little the country been hijacked by Islamisation, fuelled by its sponsorship with US and Saudi cash of the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Taseer was a rare public voice seeking to amend blasphemy laws that human rights campaigners said fuelled Islamist extremism and were used to settle petty rows based on paltry evidence.

His ostensibly secular Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) remained silent in the face of calls from fanatical mullahs of head money for anyone who killed a Christian mother sentenced to death in November under the legislation.

On the eve of a violent national strike organised by the religious right to oppose any abolition of the death penalty for defamation, the PPP government called a news conference to announce there were no plans to amend the law.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed alarm over the murder and “the ever growing shadow of intolerance and violence in society”. Islamabad, Thursday, AFP