ISLAMABAD // The governor of Punjab, Pakistan's most prosperous province, was assassinated by one of his own security guards yesterday over his opposition to the country's blasphemy law.
Salman Taseer, a leading figure in the ruling People's Party and a confidant of the president, Asif Ali Zardari, was shot at close range in an upmarket area of the capital, Islamabad.
His attacker, Mumtaz Qadri, 26, immediately laid down his weapon and surrendered to fellow officers. He remained in custody last night.
The murder is the most high-profile assassination of a political figure in Pakistan since the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in December 2007. Pakistan's governing coalition is near collapse and the nation is struggling with an Islamist insurgency.
Taseer was a vocal proponent of reform of the blasphemy laws and used the microblogging website Twitter to spread his views. "I was under huge pressure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I'm the last man standing," he wrote last Friday.
The assassination will add to concerns about inroads by Islamist extremists and fundamentalists into Pakistan's security establishment, and is another blow to the country's embattled secular government.
Taseer, was returning to his car after having lunch in Kohsar Market, a neighbourhood filled with chic cafes and stores near his home, when the guard fired. An intelligence official who interrogated him said the police commando was boasting about the assassination, saying he was proud to have killed a blasphemer.
The governor, who was also a successful businessman and publisher of a liberal newspaper, was known for his bluntness and devil-may-care attitude. He was critical of the growing militancy and extremism in Pakistan, and was particularly alarmed by such trends in his own province.
In November he took up the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman from Punjab, who had been sentenced to death under the blasphemy law for insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Taseer launched a public campaign for her release, maintaining that she was innocent, and demanding that the law be reformed.
Extremists had already been critical of the governor for his western lifestyle and liberal values.
Last Friday effigies of Taseer and Sherry Rehman, another politician who opposed the blasphemy law, were burnt in protest by religious parties who called for the governor to step down.
At the scene of yesterday's attack, a wreath was placed underneath a nearby tree. A three-day period of national mourning was declared and the government ordered flags to fly at half staff.
"He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities," said a weeping Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to Mr Zardari and a friend of Taseer. "God, we will miss him."
Enver Baig, a former senator and a friend of Taseer, called for more efforts to thwart the increasing intolerance of freedom of expression.
Rights groups expressed similar concerns. "The death of Salman Taseer, a vocal opponent of Pakistan's blasphemy law, is a tragedy for the cause of human rights everywhere", said Rafia Zakaria, a director for Amnesty International and columnist for the Pakistani English newspaper Dawn. "It illustrates the dire insecurity faced by human rights defenders in Pakistan who stand up against the persecution of minorities and the cause of free speech."
Punjab is a major base and recruiting ground for Pakistan's powerful military and security establishment, which many fear is coming under the increasing influence of religious fundamentalists as Islamist movements have spread in Pakistan.
Some analysts have suggested that fundamentalist members of the security establishment pose a greater threat of nuclear proliferation than militant groups such as the Taliban. Dozens of Pakistanis are sentenced to death each year under the blasphemy law, which dates back to the 1980s military rule of Gen Mohammad Zia ul Haq.
Most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, but human rights activists have long complained that the law is used to settle rivalries and persecute religious minorities. Under pressure from Islamist parties, the People's Party said recently it would not pursue changes to the law.
* With additional reporting from The Associated Press