Thousands of Pakistanis have attended the state funeral of a provincial governor allegedly shot dead by a bodyguard for his opposition to blasphemy laws.
Punjab governor Salman Taseer (66), was a senior member of the ruling party regarded as an outspoken moderate in a country increasingly troubled by extremism.
His assassination yesterday added to the turmoil in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government is on the verge of collapse and Islamic militancy is on the rise.
Today a group of more than 500 Muslim scholars praised the bodyguard and said no one should pray for Mr Taseer.
The scholars and clerics group, known as Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat, also made a veiled threat against Mr Taseer’s supporters in a statement. “The supporter is as equally guilty as one who committed blasphemy,” it said.
Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat is a vocal critic of Taliban militants who are violently opposed to the government and its ally the United States. The group is one of the largest representing scholars from the moderate Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims. They have been leading protests in favour of the blasphemy law.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other senior ruling party officials joined up to 6,000 mourners at a ceremony at the governor’s official residence in the city of Lahore in eastern Pakistan, before Mr Taseer was buried at a nearby cemetery.
Mr Taseer was a close ally of US-backed President Asif Ali Zardari and the highest-profile political figure to be assassinated since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was murdered three years ago.
Khusro Pervez, the commissioner of Lahore, said city authorities had deployed additional police to keep the peace. Thousands of police guarded the governor’s residence and other key sites. “Police are on maximum alert. Police are guarding all important installations in the city,” he said.
The governor’s residence has been the scene of angry street protests in recent weeks against Mr Taseer’s call to repeal blasphemy laws that order death for anyone convicted of insulting Islam and his support for a Christian woman sentenced to die for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.
Mr Taseer was shot in the back 14 times in the capital Islamabad as he left a restaurant.
An intelligence official who interrogated the suspect, identified as Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, said the 26-year-old commando had been planning the assassination since learning four days ago that he would be deployed with security for the governor.
Qadri, who was arrested immediately after the shooting, said he was proud to have killed a blasphemer. "Salman Taseer is a blasphemer and this is the punishment for a blasphemer," Qadri said in comments broadcast on Dunya television.
Police are trying to determine how he was assigned to Mr Taseer’s security detail and whether he had help.
In a sign of how confusing Pakistan's politics can be, pro-Taliban cleric Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi condemned the killing of Taseer, saying the law was man-made and not divine.
"It is the product of extremism and fanaticism which is damaging for an Islamic society," said Ashrafi. He said the clerics' association which he heads has 5,000 members.
The blasphemy law came under the spotlight after a court in November sentenced a Christian mother of four, Asia Bibi, to death in a case stemming from a village dispute.
Although courts typically overturn blasphemy convictions and no executions have been carried out, rights activists say the laws are used to settle rivalries and persecute religious minorities.
The leading opposition party has given the government a three-day deadline to accept a list of demands to avert a no-confidence vote that could result in the government’s collapse. A party spokesman said the deadline had been extended by three days because of the assassination.
Agencies