ISLAMABAD – Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded Pakistan’s religious affairs minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, in an attack in Islamabad yesterday that killed his driver, police said.
Mr Kazmi, a cleric and vocal opponent of Pakistan’s hardline Taliban, belongs to the Barelvi sect, whose moderate adherents of Islamic sufi mysticism venerate saints and their shrines. “Gunmen sprayed bullets on the minister’s car,” said a police officer.
Pakistan has been braced for retaliatory attacks by Taliban insurgents and groups linked to al-Qaeda since a US missile strike killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on August 5th. – (Reuters)