Pakistanis looking for help from government to put an end to this, are just misguided, deluded --
March 4, 2011
Most Pakistani Officials Shun Slain Official’s Funeral
By JANE PERLEZ and WAQAR GILLANI
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Shahbaz Bhatti, the Christian cabinet minister who was assassinated this week, was honored Friday at a Roman Catholic service here attended by thousands and then buried in his impoverished village, a bastion for over 100 years for the rights of minorities.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was the only senior Pakistani government official to attend. There was a phalanx of foreign diplomats, including the American ambassador, Cameron P. Munter, who sat in a pew near Mr. Bhatti’s coffin.
Mr. Bhatti had served as the minister for minorities and dedicated his life to religious tolerance in this increasingly radicalized Muslim country. His killing on Wednesday underlined the anxieties among Western governments that extremists are using targeted killings as a way to move Pakistan toward an Islamic state and are doing so with impunity.
Mr. Bhatti’s assassination followed the killing in January of an even more prominent politician, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab. The men campaigned for the reform of draconian blasphemy laws that are often used to persecute minorities, particularly Christians. Mr. Taseer was killed by his government bodyguard, who was widely hailed in Pakistani society after he confessed.
Diplomats at Mr. Bhatti’s funeral at Our Lady Fatima Church said they feared that the minister was killed on information provided by his government security detail. A branch of the Pakistani Taliban based in Punjab, where militants control many of the schools and mosques, took credit for the killing.
After multiple death threats in recent months, Mr. Bhatti rarely traveled with his security guards because he did not trust them, a Western diplomat said. The minister tried to take his own security measures — for example, sleeping at his mother’s house instead of his own — but the killers knew where to find him, the diplomat said, citing the likelihood of leaks from the security detail.
Another diplomat said that the government, which so far has proven unwilling or unable to take a strong stand against the killings, would try to offer compensation to Mr. Bhatti’s family and then close the case.
The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, which was founded on secular principles but is now under pressure from religious conservatives, announced recently that it opposed efforts to amend the blasphemy law.
But the dismay of Mr. Bhatti’s family and the angry atmosphere at the funeral, in Khush Pur in Punjab, indicated Pakistan’s Christians — about five million out of a total population of 180 million — were unlikely to let the matter rest.
“We feel that Pakistan is our country, but it seems there is no government in the country, ever, which gave us shade and protected us and fully respected our rights,” said the Rev. Andrew Nisari, one of the Catholic clergymen at the burial. “Will we be living in this hostile, harassed and fearful environment forever?”
About 10,000 mostly poor people attended the funeral, many hailing Mr. Bhatti as a local hero and now a martyr. But anxiety mingled with pride.
“The enemy is around us and hovering over us, so please be careful,” a loudspeaker announcement said before the arrival of Mr. Bhatti’s coffin by helicopter from Islamabad. Some mourners hoisted placards reading: “Shahbaz’s blood will lead to revolution.”
In most predominantly Christian villages in Punjab, many residents work as employees of large landlords in a relationship that resembles a caste system, with the Christians at the bottom. But in Khush Pur, founded during British rule in 1903 by a Roman Catholic priest, most residents have small farm holdings. The village has a particular tradition of fighting for religious rights.
A Roman Catholic bishop, John Joseph, who shot himself in 1998 in protest against the blasphemy laws, was born in the village and is buried here. In a rare honor last September, Pope Benedict XVI met Mr. Bhatti in a private audience at the Vatican.
In recent weeks, Mr. Bhatti, despondent about the murder of Mr. Taseer and fearing for his own life, sought advice on how to persist in his campaign for tolerance in the face of such threats.
“We talked heart to heart a few days before he died,” Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari, said after attending Mr. Bhatti’s funeral. “He asked: ‘What should I do?’ I told him: ‘You are a sane voice. You must continue.’ ”
Jane Perlez reported from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Waqar Gillani from Khush Pur.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 4, 2011
A previous version of this article misstated that President Asif Ali Zardari had attended the funeral of Shahbaz Bhatti; his spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, attende
).
