THE SON of a prominent Pakistani politician who was assassinated by his own bodyguard after criticising the country’s blasphemy law has been kidnapped at gunpoint in his hometown of Lahore.
Shahbaz Taseer (27) was on his way to work yesterday when he was taken at a busy junction in Gulberg, the most upmarket part of the city. The kidnappers have not been identified but there are fears that jihadists are involved.
His father, Salman Taseer, a senior figure in the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, was shot dead in January by a policeman on his security detail after he called for reform of the country’s much-abused blasphemy law.
The killing divided Pakistan, exposing the gulf between a tiny segment of liberals who condemned the assassination and a jeering majority who supported and even celebrated the killing.
Mr Taseer’s family has since been the target of a vicious campaign of vilification in newspaper articles, on talk shows and online.
Mr Taseer’s youngest daughter Shehrbano, a journalist, has often spoken out in public warning of Pakistan’s slide towards extremism, but Shahbaz has kept a lower profile. “He had received no threats himself, nothing like that. He always stayed out of the media eye,” said his brother Shehryar.
He said the kidnappers had not yet made any contact with the family, who had been receiving threats from religious extremists.
“They left everything of value. His Mercedes, his iPad, his BlackBerry. This is not a kidnapping for ransom. That’s the worrying part.”
Gangs of professional kidnappers who target wealthy individuals for ransom operate in Lahore and other cities. This month a US aid worker was abducted from his home in Lahore by several armed men. He remains missing.
Shahbaz is a graduate of London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He worked in the family business empire and married several years ago. The family was provided with security after the murder of his father. Shahbaz, however, was travelling without his police guards when he was taken, according to Punjab’s law minister, Rana Sanaullah.
“We have sealed the whole city, all the exits,” he told reporters. “He sometimes had with him the security squad the government provided, sometimes not. The fact that he went today without his guards suggests that he didn’t think he was under threat.”
He said four young men wearing jeans had used a motorbike and a black four-wheel drive vehicle to abduct Mr Taseer as he took his normal route to work.
Salman Taseer’s killer proudly confessed, saying that he had killed the outspoken politician for calling for reform of Pakistan’s colonial-era blasphemy law. Mr Taseer had highlighted the case of a Christian woman condemned to death for blasphemy on the flimsiest of evidence. The law on blasphemy is routinely used against religious minorities and to settle personal scores with fabricated allegations that the police and courts are too afraid to challenge.
Punjab is Pakistan’s wealthiest and most populous province. Lahore is its provincial capital. Salman Taseer was appointed by president Asif Zardari as governor of Punjab, a colonial-era title now largely ceremonial but still formally the province’s highest official position.
– ( Guardianservice)