Protests greet death sentence for murderer of Pakistan’s liberal governor

A PAKISTANI court has sentenced a police officer to death for the killing of a liberal governor earlier this year, a murder that led to fears the country was buckling under the weight of extremism.

The January murder in broad daylight of Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer by one of his police guards was alarming in itself, but what came afterward perhaps even more so: lawyers showered his killer, Mumtaz Qadri, with flowers, thousands demonstrated in his defence and politicians failed to condemn the killing publicly.

Qadri has told his trial that Taseer deserved to die because of his criticism of Pakistani laws that mandate the death sentence for insulting Islam. Taseer, a member of the country’s ruling party, wanted amendments in the law and had defended a Christian woman sentenced to death under it.

Qadri was convicted and sentenced in an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi close to the capital Islamabad. The trial, which began a month after the killing, was held in a prison and was closed to the media.

Under Pakistan law, Qadri can appeal. Death sentences have been rarely carried out in Pakistan in recent years.

Qadri’s main defence was that Taseer, a Muslim, had brought on his own killing because of his opposition to the so-called “blasphemy laws.”

One of Qadri’s lawyers, Raja Shuja-ur-Rehman, said the defence would appeal the verdict.

As the news broke, more than 100 Muslim extremists protested outside the jail.

“We will free you! We will die for you!” shouted 20-year-old Mohamemd Aslam. Others yelled: “Long live Qadri, long live Qadri!”

Pakistan, whose 180 million people are almost 95 per cent Muslim, has seen an alarming spread in violent Islamist extremism since 2007. It has been especially hard to counter because some of the groups – and the extremist ideology they spread – once enjoyed or continue to have state backing or sanction.

The security forces have fought back, but thousands of government officials, Christians, Shi’ites and scores of police and soldiers have been killed in assassinations and suicide bombings. The wave of terror has alarmed the West, which is also concerned about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

Taseer was a wealthy, polarising figure, but one of few Pakistani officials to consistently oppose extremism. Two weeks after he was killed, the only Christian government minister in the country was gunned down, also in Islamabad and also because of his criticism of the blasphemy laws.

The laws are held dear by Pakistan’s powerful Islamist clergy and political parties, which fiercely oppose any efforts to change them. But they are also frequently abused to target Christians caught up in business and other disputes with Pakistani Muslims.

Police do not need evidence to arrest someone under the laws, meaning people can be locked for years on the basis of a single accusation.

Since Taseer’s killing, the government has dropped any talk of modifying the laws.

Members of Taseer’s family have continued speaking out against militancy, and in August, Taseer’s adult son was abducted from his car in the city of Lahore. His fate remains unknown.