ISLAMABAD: The governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province was shot dead in the capital Tuesday by one of his guards, who told interrogators afterward that he was angry about the politician's stance against the country's blasphemy law, officials said. The killing of Salman Taseer was the most high-profile assassination of a political figure in Pakistan since the slaying of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, and it rattled a country already dealing with a range of crises. The assassin, identified as Malik Mumtaz Qadri, surrendered to the police after the shooting. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced a three-day national mourning period. Taseer was a member of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and a close associate of President Asif Ali Zardari. The governor was vocal on a range of subjects, even using Twitter to get across his views. In recent days, as the PPP has faced the loss of its coalition partners, the 56-year-old Taseer has insisted that the government will survive. But it was his very public stance against the blasphemy law that apparently led to his killing. Pakistan's blasphemy law has come under greater scrutiny in recent days after a Christian woman was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). An intelligence official interrogating the suspect said the elite force security guard was boasting about the assassination, saying he was proud to have killed a blasphemer. Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to Zardari and friend of Taseer, said the slain leader was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities. “God, we will miss him.”
