A report from BosNewsLife…
Gunmen have shot and killed Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, who publicly challenged the country’s controversial blasphemy laws and demanded more rights for minority Christians in the mainly Islamic nation.
Police said Bhatti, 42, was shot dead on Wednesday, while traveling in a car near a market of the capital Islamabad. “Three or four armed men riding in a white Suzuki car intercepted his official vehicle,” city police chief Wajid Durrani told reporters. “The attackers were clad in shawls and fired bursts on him, and he died.”
Shahbaz Bhatti had been known for publicly opposing the anti-blasphemy legislation and personally demanded the release of a Christian mother of four, Asia Bibi. She was sentenced to death for allegedly making blasphemous statements about Islam, charges she strongly denies.
“The initial reports are that there were three men who attacked him. He was probably shot using a Kalashnikov, but we are trying to ascertain what exactly happened,” Durrani added.
News reports suggested that bullets hit Bhatti’s car four or five times through the windshield. Blood covered the back seat, witnesses said. Medics said Bhatti received several wounds.
His assassination came shortly after Bhatti, the only Christian in the cabinet, told BosNewsLife he had received death threats from Islamic extremists.
He had been known for publicly opposing the anti-blasphemy legislation and personally demanded the release of a Christian mother of four, Asia Bibi. She was sentenced to death for allegedly making blasphemous statements about Islam, charges she strongly denies.
Under the law anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammad faces the death penalty.
Bhatti acknowledged recently he was told that if he would continue his campaign for Bibi and for changes to the controversial legislation he would be killed. They said ” I will be assassinated, I will be beheaded. But forces of violence, forces of extremism cannot harass me, cannot threaten me,” Bhatti explained.
The minister added he received written letters and messages from Islamic militants, warning him to stop campaigning against the reported misuse of blasphemy laws and pursuing justice for victims anti-Christian bloodshed in Gojra region.
He also told reporters earlier this year that only God could protect him. “I cannot trust on security…. I believe that protection can come only from heaven, so these bodyguards can’t save you.”
Bhatti stressed it was important however to “stand against these forces of terrorism because they’re terrorizing the country.”
The police chief denied that Bhatti had not been provided with proper security, as his supporters suggested.
However Durrani admitted that the minister was not accompanied by his security detail when the attack happened. “The squad officer told me that the minister had directed him to wait for him at his office. He used to often visit his mother’s house without a squad,” he said in a statement. “We are investigating the matter from different angles.”
Bhatti was the second prominent politician to be killed within two months. In January the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his security guards. The assassin in that case said he killed the governor for criticizing the anti-blasphemy law. Taseer was also a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
Bhatti had made clear however that Taseer’s killing would not stop him from campaigning against the blasphemy law which he said was misused to settle personal scores in this predominantly Islamic nation.
In a statement Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the murder of Batthi was a “terribly grave new act of violence” that “demonstrates that the Pope’s insistent addresses regarding violence against Christians and religious freedom have been justified.”
He said he wanted Christian journalists and lawyers to join him in his battle by influencing public opinion. “Christian journalists and lawyers can play a vital role in abolition of black blasphemy laws and other discriminatory laws, legislated to let down Christians of Pakistan”, he added.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani have condemned the murder, saying it will not deter the country from its fight against religious extremism.
The Vatican also expressed outrage over the killing.
In a statement Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the murder of Batthi was a “terribly grave new act of violence” that “demonstrates that the Pope’s insistent addresses regarding violence against Christians and religious freedom have been justified.”
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, has expressed “great shock and dismay” at the assassination in a letter to Prime Minister Zardari.
“We understand that Mr Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated by religious extremists because he was critical of the controversial blasphemy law in Pakistan,” Rev Dr Tveit wrote.
“We have been informed by our member constituencies in Pakistan that Mr Bhatti was a man of courage and conviction who had recently stated that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the principled stand he had taken ‘because the people of Pakistan are being victimized under the pretence of blasphemy law’. It was while Mr Bhatti was openly advocating amending the blasphemy law that he was assassinated by extremist forces.”
Rev Dr Tveit said the WCC has “followed with great concern the use and misuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan as well as persecution of the religious minorities in the country.”
“We urge the government of Pakistan to take all necessary measures to provide safety and security to the Christian minority in Pakistan, and other minorities, and not to be deterred by the violent crimes committed by religious extremists.”
The murder was also condemned by Bishop Samuel Azariah, Presiding Bishop of the Church of Pakistan, who said in a statement that not only were Christians sad and hurt by the killing but that they now considered themselves “absolutely unsafe” in Pakistan.
Bishop Azariah said the killing was “another example” of the abuse and misuse of blasphemy laws by religious zealots.
– with DAVID ADAMS
