dead body of shahbaz bhatti

Dead body of shahbaz bhatti
Dead body of shahbaz bhatti

 The car of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani minister for minorities affairs, is seen after his assassination.

 Dead body of shahbaz bhatti
Dead body of shahbaz bhatti 

Taliban say killed Christian Pakistani cabinet

(The body of assassinated minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti is carried 
from a hospital after he was killed in Islamabad 
on March 2, 2011S/Faisal Mahmood)

Taliban militants on Wednesday shot dead Pakistan’s only Christian government minister for challenging a law that mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam, the latest sign of instability in a country where many fear radical Islam is becoming more mainstream. Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti is the second senior official this year to be assassinated for opposing the blasphemy law. Provincial governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own bodyguard in January.
These killings, along with frequent militant attacks and chronic economic problems have raised fears for the future of U.S.-ally and nuclear-armed Pakistan, where an unpopular coalition government is struggling to cope.

(Relatives of slain Pakistani Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti cry near the site where he was shot by gunmen in Islamabad March 2, 2011/Mian Khursheed)

Bhatti, a Roman Catholic, was shot by men in shawls in broad daylight while he was travelling in a car near a market in the capital, Islamabad, police said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the minister had been “punished” for being a blasphemer.
Witnesses said the attackers scattered leaflets signed by “The Qaeda and the Taliban of Punjab” at the attack scene, which read: “This is the punishment of this cursed man.”

(Christians shout slogans to protest against the killing of Pakistani Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti during a demonstration in Lahore, March 2, 2011/Mohsin Raza )

The blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since last November, when a court sentenced a Christian mother of four to death after her neighbors complained she had insulted Prophet Muhammad. On Jan. 4, the governor of the most populous province of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who had strongly opposed the law and sought a presidential pardon for the 45-year-old Christian farmhand, was killed by one of his bodyguards who had been angered by the governor’s stand.