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Pakistan Killer Had Revealed Plans
By ZAHID HUSSAIN And TOM WRIGHT
[PAKISTAN] Irfan Ali / Polaris
Malik Mumtaz Qadri pumped multiple rounds Tuesday into Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab province, at a shopping complex in an upscale part of Islamabad. He later told police he was angered by Mr. Taseer's efforts to abrogate the country's strict blasphemy laws.
Mr. Qadri had previously been removed from a branch of the police dealing with counterterrorism due to concerns about his Islamist leanings, and had himself come forward to ask to guard Mr. Taseer, a senior police official said.
Preliminary investigations also have revealed that Mr. Qadri informed other police officers of his plans, the official said. Police have detained a dozen other people, including six police officers who were also on guard duty and are suspected of abetting the crime after they failed to stop the shooting of Mr. Taseer.
Investigations are focusing on Mr. Qadri's links with Dawat-i-Islami, a radical Islamist group that has been at the forefront of protests in recent weeks against efforts to change the blasphemy laws, the police official said. Mr. Taseer's death has exposed a deep fissure in Pakistan society between liberal politicians with Western lifestyles and religious leaders who hew to an Islamist view of the world and are gaining influence.
Mr. Qadri became an instant hero for the Islamists who posted thousands of messages on Facebook. "Pray for the ascension of Qadri to heaven," reads one.
Many religious leaders, even those from so-called moderate groups, were angered by Mr. Taseer's support in recent months of a 45-year-old Christian farm worker, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in November for blasphemy for insulting Islam.
"Everybody is in favor of Mumtaz Qadri," said Raghib Hussain Naeemi, a leading cleric in Lahore. "Everybody is thinking that Salmaan Taseer was on the wrong side. He's standing with that person who committed blasphemy."
The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat, another religious group, said in a statement signed by more than 500 clerics that Mr. Qadri was a "true soldier of Islam" and warned Muslims not to mourn his death.
"It is a warning to all intellectuals and politicians who [want] to change Islamic laws," the statement said.
Pakistan Assassin Had Revealed Plans of Attack on Salmaan Taseer - WSJ.com
By ZAHID HUSSAIN And TOM WRIGHT
[PAKISTAN] Irfan Ali / Polaris
Malik Mumtaz Qadri pumped multiple rounds Tuesday into Salmaan Taseer, governor of Punjab province, at a shopping complex in an upscale part of Islamabad. He later told police he was angered by Mr. Taseer's efforts to abrogate the country's strict blasphemy laws.
Mr. Qadri had previously been removed from a branch of the police dealing with counterterrorism due to concerns about his Islamist leanings, and had himself come forward to ask to guard Mr. Taseer, a senior police official said.
Preliminary investigations also have revealed that Mr. Qadri informed other police officers of his plans, the official said. Police have detained a dozen other people, including six police officers who were also on guard duty and are suspected of abetting the crime after they failed to stop the shooting of Mr. Taseer.
Investigations are focusing on Mr. Qadri's links with Dawat-i-Islami, a radical Islamist group that has been at the forefront of protests in recent weeks against efforts to change the blasphemy laws, the police official said. Mr. Taseer's death has exposed a deep fissure in Pakistan society between liberal politicians with Western lifestyles and religious leaders who hew to an Islamist view of the world and are gaining influence.
Mr. Qadri became an instant hero for the Islamists who posted thousands of messages on Facebook. "Pray for the ascension of Qadri to heaven," reads one.
Many religious leaders, even those from so-called moderate groups, were angered by Mr. Taseer's support in recent months of a 45-year-old Christian farm worker, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court in November for blasphemy for insulting Islam.
"Everybody is in favor of Mumtaz Qadri," said Raghib Hussain Naeemi, a leading cleric in Lahore. "Everybody is thinking that Salmaan Taseer was on the wrong side. He's standing with that person who committed blasphemy."
The Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat, another religious group, said in a statement signed by more than 500 clerics that Mr. Qadri was a "true soldier of Islam" and warned Muslims not to mourn his death.
"It is a warning to all intellectuals and politicians who [want] to change Islamic laws," the statement said.
Pakistan Assassin Had Revealed Plans of Attack on Salmaan Taseer - WSJ.com
