Governor Punjab, Salman Taseer, Killed.

[scrumpy]

I am here to offer my condolences to the moderates and the not so moderates who can still differentiate between right and wrong.

The past few days, the agitation supporting the blasphemy law was an attack on moderate voices in society. The latest bit of news is a loud announcement that any one who dares to stand against these regressive forces will be killed.

In my opinion only way to act against bullies is to stand up against it.
The government of Pakistan should immediately pass laws which promise strict action against any one who uses religion to justify violence. These laws should be implemented strictly.
Further polarisation by all Pakistani politicians in the name of religion should be stopped.
All forms of media which glorify violence in the name of religion have to be stopped.
A large media campaign to appeal to the moderate voices in society should be started immediately. The moderates shouldn't shy away from this challenge. Your country needs you.

To quote Gandhi,
"Be the change you want to see in the world."

 

[Kompromat]

Please discuss the topic, no more discussions of moderators decisions. Bans have been reduced. Just keep yourself out of supporting the killing of political figures.

Thanks webbie.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Assassin linked with Dawat-i-Islami | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia | DAWN.COM

 

[A1Kaid]

Interesting read, the views of Aatish Taseer son of Salman Taseer on his father.


Massmedia Cell Aatish Taseer Interview about his Father Salman Taseer


I think it reveals and explains a lot.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Sun of liberalism sets on Islamabad’s horizon

By Mahtab Bashir

ISLAMABAD: Federal capital started assuming a mournful atmosphere as soon as a sorrowful news was splashed at about 4:26pm that Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was assassinated in front of Kohsar Market situated in posh area of Sector F-6 on Tuesday.

Soon after the incident, residents of the federal capital went in a somber mood while foreigners reportedly left the posh markets including Super Market (F-6), Jinnah Super Market (F-7), F-10 Markaz market, and Blue area for their houses. They were terrified and stunned to hear the news of Taseer’s killing by one of his guards named Mumtaz Qadri reportedly because of his opposition to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law.

All shops located in the Kohsar Market were immediately shut down while most of other markets in the federal capital were also closed in memory of the governor. ICT Police cordoned off the area of blood stains and the spot where vehicle of governor was parked.

People from all walks of life gathered at the crime scene. Majority of them were busy using their cell phones to convey spot’s report to their relatives and near ones. A huge cluster of media persons remained busy reporting live for telvision channels.

Showing resentment, people condmened the ruthless murder and many of them went to Polyclinic hospital where Taseer was rushed to for emergenecy treatment.

The outspoken governor received 26 bullets in his chest and head. He was shifted to Polyclinic in a police van where he succumbed to injuries.

Talking to Daily Times, Ali Imran, a witness, said Taseer was stepping inside his car after visiting a nearby reatsurant named ‘Bristo’ at shopping area of Kohsar Market when he was shot. “The governor fell down and the man who fired at him threw the gun and raised his hands,” said the witness adding the killer was immediately arrested.

The shooting left blood stains on the parking area on the edge of the Kohsar shopping center, which is popular among foreigners in Islamabad.

Many on the scene termed the death of governor as a punishment for giving statements in suport of Aasia Bibi, a convict under blasphemy laws.

Palistan People’s Party (PPP) workers, who were gathered at the Polyclinic hospital, raised slogans against the murderer and demanded his immediate execution. They also raised full throat slogans against religious fanatics who wanted to sabotage peace of the country.

DAILY TIMES

 

[Kompromat]

Assassin linked with Dawat-i-Islami | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia | DAWN.COM

No less than a shock if true , Dawat e islami was a non violent & non political organization.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Leading Pakistani Politician Killed
Shooting of Critic of Blasphemy Laws Highlights Struggle to Stem Extremism

Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who has been sentenced to death for blasphemy, sits next to the Governor of Punjab province.


A leading politician from Pakistan's ruling party was gunned down in a wealthy neighborhood of Islamabad Tuesday by a member of his security detail after speaking out against the country's controversial blasphemy laws, an assassination that highlights the nation's struggle to contain extremism even among those close to the center of power.

Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan's most-populous province, and a member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, died after a member of his security team fired multiple shots into his car at a shopping complex, police said.

His attacker, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who surrendered to police, admitted he was angered by Mr. Taseer's opposition to the blasphemy laws, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told local television.

Mr. Taseer had become a leading opponent in recent weeks of a court decision in November to sentence a 45-year-old Christian farm laborer, Asia Bibi, to death for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad.

The case attracted international attention, with Pope Benedict XVI and human-rights groups calling for her release. Mr. Taseer had attacked the court's decision and recently had been urging supporters on Twitter to take to the streets in protest against the blasphemy laws. His opposition had been condemned by Islamist political parties.

In a Dec. 31 post on his Twitter account, a day before Islamists took to the streets across the country to demand the laws stand, Mr. Taseer wrote: "I was under huge pressure ...2 cow down b4…pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing."

The assassination—the first of a prominent politician since former President Benazir Bhutto was killed by a bomb in 2007—illustrates the difficulties the U.S. faces in attempting to bolster secular elements in Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in fighting Islamist extremists that operate from the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan and fight both the Pakistani military and U.S. troops across the border. The Pakistan Taliban, an affiliated extremist group to the Taliban in Afghanistan, have regularly attacked Pakistani cities and towns in the past two years.

The U.S. has poured billions of dollars in civilian and military aid into the effort to dim the appeal of radical Islam among Pakistan's mostly poor population of 180 million people.

But Mr. Taseer's assassination by a member of an elite police unit shows how religious extremism pervades even segments of society that are close to the centers of power, a result of decades of official Islamization stretching back to Pakistan's founding in 1947 out of a newly independent India.

Islamist political groups had called for Mr. Taseer's ouster as governor over his opposition to the blasphemy laws and saw in his stance a Western conspiracy to roll back Pakistan's religious edicts and turn the country into a secular democracy. One party issued an edict condemning Mr. Taseer for blasphemy.

"We tend to draw these neat lines between Islamists and secularists but those lines in daily life in Pakistan are constantly blurred," said Sadanand Dhume, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Pakistan's religious laws were tightened under the rule of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, a military dictator who oversaw an Islamization of the nation's institutions such as the army and judiciary in the 1980s.

Since then, Pakistani authorities have charged scores of minority groups under the laws, including at least 50 members of the heterodox Ahmadi Muslim community in 2009, many of whom remain in prison, according to Human Rights Watch.

In no cases have the death sentences been carried out, with courts commuting sentences on appeal.

Despite some instances—like Mr. Taseer's calls to end the blasphemy laws—Pakistan's secular politicians have largely failed to unite to combat religious extremism out of fear of sparking a backlash, and in some cases have even courted extremist groups, analysts say.

Officials from the U.S., India and other countries also say some elements of Pakistan's military, continue to have close ties with Islamist groups, especially those that don't operate inside Pakistan but instead hit targets in Afghanistan and India.

The secular elite, meanwhile, also are widely viewed as corrupt by ordinary Pakistanis, in some cases increasing the appeal of Islam among Pakistan's poor.

The assassination also comes at a time of great political and economic instability in Pakistan and is likely to further paralyze the government of President Asif Ali Zardari. Last weekend, the coalition led by Mr. Zardari's Pakistan People's Party, of which Mr. Taseer was a leading member, lost its majority in the National Assembly after a key ally joined the opposition.

On Tuesday, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the largest opposition party, headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said it wouldn't launch a no-confidence motion in the government, providing the coalition with a measure of stability.

But Mr. Sharif told a news conference it would do so unless the government agrees to a series of measures over the next 45 days, including cutting government expenditure, taking action against corruption and rolling back fuel-price increases.

The political fighting comes as the U.S. and other foreign donors are increasingly worried about Pakistan's growing budget deficit, which the government is funding by borrowing from the central bank, essentially printing money and stoking inflation. Rising prices for food, fuel and other necessities could further destabilize a country that is still recovering from the summer's floods, which killed almost 2,000 people and affected 20 million others.

The U.S. wants the government to raise taxes on the rich to pay for programs to help lift Pakistanis out of poverty and combat the draw of Islamist groups, who often run their own charity arms.

Some observers, however, say the case of Ms. Bibi shows how hard it is to dislodge Islamist ideologies.

Ms. Bibi was accused in June 2009 by local village women in Sheikhupura, a district of Punjab province, of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, which under Pakistani law can carry the death penalty.

Ms. Bibi, who is in jail, says the women hated her because she was a Christian, a minority in Pakistan, and had gotten in a fight over their refusal to drink water she had touched. She is appealing the court's November decision to impose a death sentence.

One radical cleric offered $6,000 to anyone who would kill Ms. Bibi.

Mr. Taseer became vocal in defending her, saying Mr. Zardari, the president, would overturn the decision if necessary. Mr. Taseer's supporters later Tuesday placed wreaths on the spot where he died.
—Zahid Hussain and Rehmat Mehsud contributed to this article.

Write to Tom Wright at tom.wright@wsj.com

WSJ

 

[A1Kaid]

"Sun of Liberalism Sets"


Well that's one way to spin it. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing an informative article.

 

[Myth_buster_1]

How many people did India kill last year and how many thousands did religious nut jobs like this kill in shrines and markets?

How many Australians Afganis killed last year or before 2001 for Australia to send its troops and kill afganis? or is Aus acting like a police state?

 

[Dance]

Utter madness


The assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer in Islamabad by one of his own police guards, in one of the federal capital’s most upscale markets (often frequented by foreigners, diplomats and the well-heeled) should open our eyes to the utter madness engulfing our nation. According to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the killer surrendered himself after doing the ‘deed’ and said that he did it because the governor had called the blasphemy law a “black law”. The assassination comes a few days after a countrywide strike by religious parties, fully backed by banned militant and sectarian outfits, against any government plans to change the blasphemy law. In the run-up to that strike, Mr Taseer and his PPP colleague, the courageous MNA and former information minister Sherry Rehman, were singled out by name by the obscurantists and many of the statements that were made by the leaders of some religious parties bordered on incitement to violence. Mr Taseer had also spoken out in defence of Aasia Bibi, after visiting her some weeks ago in prison. He had pledged to do all he could to free her since, in his view, she was innocent of the charge against her because she had not committed blasphemy and was being victimised because she was a Christian.

In all of this, the Punjab governor said all the right things and it was heartening to finally see someone speak with the voice of progressiveness and respect for human rights that the PPP had historically been associated with. And now it is revolting to see the same man done to death, so viciously, and that too by a member of his own police guard, someone whose duty it was to guard him with his own life. The policeman who killed Mr Taseer was, in all likelihood, so indoctrinated by the culture of hate and intolerance that pervades against minorities, especially on the blasphemy law in this country, that he must believe that his action will guarantee him a place in heaven. And it will not be long before we will find many people, in the media and on television in particular, who will become apologists for the killer and try to justify his actions. In this it needs to be said, clearly, and again and again, that Salmaan Taseer was not a blasphemer and he was not an apostate. He said what needed to be said because the blasphemy law is misused and targets defenceless people who, more often than not, belong to the minorities and any country comprising civilised and sensible people, would have in-built provisions to prevent its misuse. And for that he should not have been killed. But what we have is utter madness, a situation where those who try and speak out for the poor and defenceless, for the victimised and the harassed, are targeted themselves. And Mr Taseer’s untimely and tragic death shows that position and power doesn’t play a role in this — one can be the governor of the country’s largest province and an important member of the ruling party but all of that comes to naught in front of a brainwashed individual who thinks that taking another man’s life is a passport to heaven.

Also, lest we forget, since we all, especially in this country, tend to have very short memories, the blood of Salmaan Taseer is on all our hands. We, each one of us, are to blame for his assassination. And this is because, when he was being targeted by the extremists and the religious elements in our society, when some people came on television and hinted that Mr Taseer was, in effect, wajibul qatl we did nothing to stand up and support him. It is these same people who are now targeting Sherry Rehman — how many members of civil society rallied to her defence, except for a few hundred people in the federal capital?

The PPP is known to be a party of progressive values with a vision, and it needs to reclaim that space and fight the extremists. It needs to provide exemplary punishment to the killer and it should not back down from modifying the law since it is much misused and cause for violence. If this is not realised and nothing is done on this front, we will all be victims of the same fate that befell Salmaan Taseer.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 5th, 2011.

Utter madness – The Express Tribune

 

[shuntmaster]

Lunch with BS: Aatish Taseer
Passage through Islam

.......
But Taseer, the love child of journalist Tavleen Singh, born in London, growing up amidst cousins and an extended joint family in New Delhi before being sent off to a residential school in Kodaikanal, was more concerned with another identity. Born as a result of a tempestuous week-long affair, his father, Salmaan Taseer, was Pakistani. Did that make him, Aatish, a Pakistani Muslim?
..............................
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but unfortunately for Aatish, the publication of this book coincides with the rise of his father as governor of Punjab, while his book examines the “cultural” Islam of his father with an excoriating indictment of that religion and of his father’s country.
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He wrote to his father as a seven-year-old, but did not get a response; later, he called him from his boarding school, only to be rebuffed. Still later, when he worked in London as a journalist, a story he wrote on second-generation Pakistani estrangement of identity becoming the genus of Islamic extremism earned him his father’s ire, accusing him of even “superficial knowledge of the Pakistani ethos”. By now Taseer had been to Pakistan, met with his father, the extended family. “It had been emotional meeting my father and his family,” he says, “it made me shut down.”
..............................
..............................

Taseer had grown up accompanying his mother on election campaigns and her political beat — apparently the first words he spoke, he recalls, were “Indira Gandhi hai hai! — and experiencing the plurality of Indian society. “Pakistani society has no plurality,” he says. “There is the fundamental idea of freedom, of institutions, in India, no matter how chaotic, which in Pakistan are looked upon with great suspicion.” So while he hoped to work out his “personal problem on one level”, the journey, on another plane, “couldn’t ignore the problem of Islam”. He had worked out that “what I was dealing with was part of faith but they weren’t articles of faith. For instance, my father’s attitude to Hindu India, to pre-Islamic India couldn’t be explained,” even though Salmaan was not a practising Muslim. “Something bigger had happened in the 20th century to Islam that could be explained by the Partition as a quest for a new Islamic country. That original impulse in 1947 masked in genteel ways what seemed like a refined argument but concealed what an ugly thing it was.”

 

[Omar1984]

Lunch with BS: Aatish Taseer
Passage through Islam

And how long did this indian love child of Salman Taseer spend time with his Pakistani dad in Pakistan?

Ask Governor Salman Taseer's children in Pakistan about their dad. Looks like they spent more time with their dad and in Pakistan.

 

[RabzonKhan]

EDITORIAL: A foul murder

Daily Times
January 05, 2011

There are no words to describe the shock and horror of the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer. This is yet another high profile murder of a political figure from Pakistan’s People’s Party (PPP) after Benazir Bhutto. The governor could not survive 27 bullet injuries, which were inflicted when one of the guards of his security detail opened fire at him as he came back to his car after having lunch with a friend at a restaurant in Kohsar Market in Islamabad. The autopsy has revealed that his death was caused by a bullet wound in his neck. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has told reporters that the assassin, Punjab Elite Force member Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, confessed to killing Taseer for criticising the blasphemy laws. The governor held an open stance against the blasphemy laws promulgated by General Ziaul Haq and had called for their repeal, or at the very least their amendment to guard against the misuse and abuse of many years since the law was promulgated by a dictator and then made more stringent by successor governments of the right. However, it would be premature to say that this indeed was the motive behind the assassin’s act. This explanation sounds too pat. If history is any guide, such minor operatives act as tools in the hands of their cloaked masterminds and are usually killed after the deed is done. The strange circumstance is that the assassin was able to unload his gun into the victim without being fired back on or even accosted by the rest of the governor’s security detail. So far, the assassin and the entire security detail are in policy custody and being investigated. Only time will tell whether this was an individual act or someone orchestrated it to create political instability in the country at a time when the federal government is already teetering after losing its majority in parliament with the departure of coalition allies JUI-F and MQM.

If indeed it was an individual act and done to avenge the governor’s opposition to the blasphemy laws, then this murder is a grim commentary on the state of affairs in Pakistan. If the religious extremists who consider themselves the guardians of the Prophet’s (PBUH) honour can go so far as to take the life of someone who opposed man-made laws, then society is heading for anarchy and barbarism. This means that there is no space for a rational discourse and even a person of such high profile as the Governor Punjab cannot escape their wrath. It also speaks of the weakness in the security regime of the Punjab government.

The Punjab government is responsible for the provision of security to all VIPs in the province. It is strange that a person with such extremist inclinations as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri was deployed in the governor’s security detail. The Punjab government cannot absolve itself of part of the blame for this murder. Its call for a judicial inquiry has yet to be responded to by the federal government, which has so far set up an inter-agency investigation team to look into all aspects of the assassination, including whether the assassin acted alone or a deeper conspiracy was at work.

Salmaan Taseer was an entirely self-made person and created a career as a businessman and politician by dint of sheer hard work, courage in the face of adversity, and a fearless stance even when threatened by malign forces. He was a highly qualified chartered accountant, having obtained his qualification from England, and initially made a business fortune in the Gulf. He relocated to Pakistan and established the First Capital Securities Corporation, a full service brokerage house in 1994, and next year founded WorldCall Telecom Limited in 1995. The company has since become a major private sector telecom operator and expanded its network to the Gulf region. However, business was not his only interest. Politically motivated since his student years in London, Taseer participated in politics from the PPP’s platform and experienced the tribulations of the martial law of Ziaul Haq during the Movement for Restoration of Democracy in 1983, including a spell of incarceration and torture in the infamous Lahore Fort. He also authored a biography of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1980 titled, Bhutto, A Political Biography. In 1988, he was elected a member of the Punjab Assembly, eventually taking over the slot of the Leader of the Opposition. Due to his trenchant criticism of the PML-N government in Punjab, he was rounded up and tortured by the security forces on the directives of the Sharifs. His later attempts to enter the National Assembly in successive elections during the 1990s did not succeed. He, however, continued to exercise considerable clout within the party. After developing his successful businesses, Salmaan Taseer ventured into the world of the media, a project close to his heart. He launched the Daily Times newspaper and television channel Business Plus (now renamed B-Plus). This was followed subsequently by the launch of a liberal Urdu daily, Aaj Kal. He was appointed Governor Punjab on May 15, 2008, much to the chagrin of the PML-N. He had since gained prominence in the political arena and served as the strongman of the PPP in Punjab and therefore a thorn in the side of the PML-N.

His murder has been strongly condemned by leaders across the political spectrum. The PPP workers have reacted by staging a demonstration in front of the Governor’s House in Lahore and various locations in most major cities. Markets in Lahore, Faisalabad and other parts of the country closed as soon as the news of the assassination spread. The prime minister has announced a three-day mourning, the PPP two weeks of mourning, while the Punjab government has decided to close all educational institutions in Punjab today, partly as a mark of respect, partly out of security concerns. The nation suffered a great loss in this assassination. A liberal and progressive voice in a political scene infested by rightwing politics has been silenced. Now justice and the very well being and future of the country demands that the culprit/s be punished to the full extent of the law as a deterrent to such fanatics who seem to be teeming in the very entrails of our state and society.

 

[Dance]

and show me proof where it says majority Pakistanis favour this stupid, stone-age mentality law

Just because some Mullahs and their ilk came on to the streets to protest means that majority of Pakistanis support the law and that these mullahs represent all Pakistanis and their views.

 

[Meengla]

Mods,
Why are you tolerating this disgraceful Omar1984 for continuing to post photos of the Taseer daughters here? Is he not blatantly linking an 'immoral' family to the murder of Mr. Taseer.
I wish I can put this Omar1984 to some 'ignore' list.