Death sentence for killer of Punjab governor over Pakistan’s

Death sentence for killer of Punjab governor over Pakistan’s blasphemy law

Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the bodyguard arrested in the shooting death of the Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer, is seen here detained in a police

vehicle at the scene of the crime in Islamabad on January 4, 2011/Adil Gill)

A Pakistani court sentenced to death on Saturday the killer of the governor of Pakistan’s largest province after he had called for reform of a law against

blasphemy, a defense lawyer and state-run media said. Mumtaz Qadri was a bodyguard for Punjab province Governor Salman Taseer and shot him

dead in the capital, Islamabad, on January 4.

Taseer was an outspoken critic of predominantly Muslim Pakistan’s blasphemy law and Qadri is viewed as a hero by many people who thought Taseer

himself was a blasphemer by calling for the law’s reform. Qadri had said he was enforcing divine law by murdering a blasphemer.

The killing highlighted a growing gulf between conservatives and more liberal elements in society. Qadri’s supporters took to the streets to denounce

the sentence soon after it was handed down at a hearing in a jail where he is being held in the city of Rawalpindi. “By punishing one Mumtaz Qadri, you

will produce a thousand Mumtaz Qadris!” one man shouted through a megaphone outside the jail.