Shahbaz Bhatti’s assassination: New clues point to family rivalry as motive for murder
Family rivalry and not religious victimisation claimed Minorities’ Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti’s life, according to investigators.
In an interesting twist, the daylight murder in the capital has been attributed to a property dispute between relatives. Police investigators have concluded it was not a religiously-motivated murder in their latest report despite the fact that the Punjabi Taliban had claimed responsibility for the assassination.
Justice appears to be a long time coming for the former minister’s family since the murderers have fled the country.
“Shahbaz’s murder is said to be linked to a ‘chronic rivalry’ with relatives who lived in Faisalabad five years ago,” revealed an investigator associated with the Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
New clues have led the Islamabad police to a family, who left the country due to the rivalry with the Bhattis, the JIT stated in its latest report. The family was also residing in Bhatti’s native town Khushpur, which has produced famous priests and nuns, but some family members are now reportedly living in the UAE. Two or three of them have converted to Islam and are living in Malaysia, said a member of the JIT.
The Express Tribune reported on June 29 that Shahbaz’s murder was plotted by al Qaeda-linked militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri. National and international media ran the story quoting the newspaper. All but two of his brothers moved to Europe in the aftermath of the assassination for security reasons.
The murderers are currently in Dubai or Kuala Lumpur according to an investigator. However, their names have not been identified yet. “We will approach Interpol for their arrest,” he said.
Paul Bhatti, the slain minister’s brother and an adviser to the prime minister, said he has moved his family to Europe. But he did not disclose their exact location due to security concerns. When questioned if his brother’s murder was a case of family rivalry, Paul only said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik had told him he had contacted Interpol to arrest some accused from the UAE.
However, there has been no further progress, he said quoting police officials. “I will request Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to constitute a judicial commission to investigate my brother’s murder.”
Minister for National Harmony Akram Masih Gill said he would take up the issue with President Zardari and the prime minister on August 11, the day they are to inaugurate Shahbaz Bhatti’s memorial trust. “Paul will also speak to both dignitaries to convey the minorities’ resentment which is increasing with every passing day,” Gill said.
Interpol has not been contacted for assistance because we have no clue about the exact location of the accused, said an interior ministry official familiar with the matter.
“We cannot put our case before Interpol without substantive proof,” he added.
“Firstly, we wanted to close the investigation but then we learnt that there was a chronic ethnic and property dispute between the two families which led to Shahbaz’s murder,” said a police official.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2011.
COMMENTS (62)
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@Paul & Jamel
I think, at some extent, some Indian ethnic group can be involved in this murder. As some Hindus reportedly have clashes with Christian Community in Faisalabad and other districts of Punjab. It must be probed.
BS
@tanvir akhtar:
What does it say on your NIC???
@ tanvir akhtar
May Allah have mercy on you and show you to the right path - Ameen.
@parvez: You say: "It’s about time we took the white stripe out from the flag" Yaar, usi mein to danda lagaya hua hai.
Funny to see mullahs celebrating over the false claims of this JIT. Do mullahs not see the killings of Pakistanis everyday conducted by Taliban and associated outfits ? Does this one false claim by JIT exonerate all Mullah Madness in Pakistan ?
i am afraid that how the investigators can turn this investigations towards family dispute while the ssp tahir alam khan who was the member of the investigation team said during a meeting that he did not know about the actual report in this regard.
i believe this was a shameful act of the the government as it failed to counter molvies involved in the murderssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Jamel sb Please stop blaming religious leaders. They are lungs of Islam. They never thought to create problems for minorities. There are moderns style people who are creating problems for mullahs that is why there is a reaction from their side. Condemn modernism rather than Islamic thoughts.
No evidence of Indan involvement.!!!!!!!!!!!!
They had to comeup with some phony investagative report. What a nugget of wisdom. Investgators are the mullas and their cronies, or they are afraid to tell the truth. Months later come up with phony conclusions. What a hogwash.
Dear ET continue to unfold miseries of minorities in Pakistan. People like Jamil, Fortune Cookie and many others are dead against the liberalism and wanted to ruin the issues burning with every passing day. Yes, I'm also dead against mullasim and extremism in Pakistan. I think India is also facing extremism. It should also take some steps against Shiv--Sena like party.
@Adil:
Too many terrorist models coming out of our terrorist factories so one gets muddled sometimes.
Bhatti’s murderers made it clear who they were and why they killed him at the time of murder. This is all well documented, see the news reports of the time. But issue is not the evidence but the will. As, apparently there is wide spread support among people for terrorists and government does not want to go against public sentiments as is obvious from dilly dallying on mumtaz qadri case.
According to this BBC report of today’s, Sipah-e-Sahaba is involved in Bhatti's murder;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2011/08/110809shahbazbhatti_investgation-tk.shtml
@Adil; Sir the people you have referred to are neither the right-wingers nor blaming Islam. They are only pointing out the irrationality of those who do terrible things to other human beings in the name of Islam and the mullahs you are trying to defend, a great majority if not all of them are responsible for the state of affairs we are in today. How could you deny that they have not hijacked my Great Faith to impose an alien version of it upon my people? It takes a lot of moral courage to call spade a spade, sadly most of us conspicuously lack it.
“Firstly, we wanted to close the investigation but then we learnt that there was a chronic ethnic and property dispute between the two families which led to Shahbaz’s murder,” said a police official.
How can you close an incomplete INVESTIGATION ??????
@Roflcopter:
Yes truth is now out that extremism is now mainstream in Pakistan and no one can put their hand on the extremists. Now only foreign intervention can change things for the better.
@ali: not in our lives bro...
@Frank: Well said..i am amazed to see how these people are behaving.i mean seriously they follow a newspaper when it publishes story that suits their secular mentality and when the same newspaper comes with an opposite report they all start blaming islam and mullahs. these people are not at all different than those extremist european right wingers who started spreading hate in europe about islam after the Norway shootings and when they found out it was one of their own group they started behaving like these goons here in pakistan.
@Mirza, "All of a sudden for some, Punjab police has become most trustworthy all of a sudden?" The above quoted words are a sad testament that we are a deeply flawed and completely lost people living in an irrational state with no fulcrum to balance ourselves.
All of a sudden for some, Punjab police has become most trustworthy all of a sudden? Only the police under Rana Sana and PML-N is credible otherwise not. When the same police arrests fanatic terrorists then it is corrupt and wrong. It is ironic how the standards change with the killing of a minority member. Some people are even happy at the murder of Bhatti as long as the fanatics are not blamed, and it can be seen from their comments.
@ALL ET COMMENTATORS Please stop the blame game. Let the investigation complete before jumping to the conclusion based on your own ideologies.
@Roflcopter: It's because of mentality like yours that extremism is prevalent in our country and we are steadily headed back to stone ages.
Even though the truth is out now, people will continue to blame religious extremism.
@Frank:
What are you talking about? Has the investigation team proven anything? They have been changing stories from day one. It’s obvious they don’t want to face the truth and on;y want to lead the nation to a wild goose chase until the matter dies down. The murders of Shehbaz Bhatti made no secret of who they were. They were the militant arm of the extremist mullahs who roam freely in the country. If we can’t prosecute and punish Ajmal Qadri who confessed of his crime and is under arrest what chances there are of punishing Shehbaz Bahtti’s murderers? Question is not who done it but of the will to actually take action against the extremists against the public sympathy that the murderers seem to hold.
nice way to botch up investigation to turn the people's attention from serious issues of blasphemy law for which Bhatti was killed like Taseer.we will see if taseer murder was also due to personal rivalry.
See?? Punjabi Taliban, an stupid concept, they took the responsibility of this murder, and people are blindly believing them. The Taliban and Al-Qaeda also taking advantages of the situations prevailing in the country. Allah Blesses Pakistan always.
I think Pakistanis mullahs are involved in Bhatti’s murder. Police is trying to divert the attention of minorities. Curb mullahs in Pakistan otherwise they will destroy the region. Dude Police do it now or never basisn….
so not only killed, your family can't even know for sure who killed you. Because of somany official and unofficial stories.
@Pak Christian:
Report appears to be based on facts because there was an old family dispute of Bhatti family in Faisalabad. Their rivals fled abroad as Bhatti came to power. Some of them came back Pakistan earlier this year and were in haunt to kill him. As they succeeded to kill him they fled abroad again. This was the main reason his family is not pursuing his case.
I don't believe this, normally a family benefits from having someone as a minister in the Govt., also he as a minister had more power than any of his family members, so even if he did have a dispute he would be the stronger party.
the poor Christian community has been attacked enough in Pakistan without them attacking each other. This is just a cover up!
God help Pakstan!
this is just plain stupid ! rather than making a correct step, we are going further into the abyss ! what a shame seriously. It will make minorities feel more unsecure :( ...
our police thinks we are all chimps. and that is true because we don't speak out.
What a lame story and to see Tribune's posted it without a proper investigation. Isn't the family at an advantage having a member of the family as a Minister? Shameless cover-up.
Dear Liberals, you're all little rebels who've been deprived of a cause, aren't you? Please keep jumping up and down and screaming. It's so much fun to watch.
One cant blame the investgating team since nobody wants to leave this world pre-maturely by speaking the truth.
it's not just the christians or ahmadis who face persecution in pakistan.The worst treated and the most persecuted and tortured people are the atheists in pakistan. our society has declined and descended so much that even well educated people now thanks to mazhabi channels and televangelists blasting their religious fascist propaganda 24/7 openly scream that they want public beheadings of atheists in pakistan. if i choose not to believe in something that is my right.if i don't believe in your beliefs i still tolerate your beliefs ,i tolerate it when the ramazan ordinance imposes on the entire population the ritual beliefs of one single community,i tolerate your beliefs when an ordinance forbids anyone from offending your beliefs while it provides no punishment for abusing atheists, i tolerate your beliefs when my country's constitution explicitly states that only a muslim can be the president.
well, wake up pakistan there are millions of athiests and ex-muslims living in pakistan.your hate and persecution of us won't hide the fact of our existence.
Yes, i am tanvir,a pakistani and i am an atheist.
our islamic fanatics never fail to repeat like a parrot how this is the ISLAMIC republic of pakistan and the non-muslims have to live like second class citizens as a result of it . what these ignorant people don't know and were not taught in the madrassas is that the founder of this country mr. jinnah had created 'the republic of pakistan' ,there was no word 'islamic' in our original,genuine name. it was only later when a weak govt. surrendered before the pressure tactics of the islamic fascists that the word ' islamic ' was added to our country's name. this country is not an islamic country ,our founder didn't create it as an islamic country otherwise he would have included the word 'islamic' himself.
the islamic extremists should not make the lives of non-muslims hell ,this persecution of atheists and agnostics in pakistan also should stop immediately.
It's about time we took the white stripe out from the flag,
Dear Liberals, it's highly enjoyable watching you all being tormented by cognitive dissonance.
When the militants were blamed by the JIT, we accepted it with no proof. But now, no one is ready to accept it. Why? I am totally disappointed to find the educated people to put irrational stuff. We must not believe either side of story without evidence or without a court trial. But this makes sense at least as one of the possibilities. When they already had a rivalry and there was a threat for him, it may be the time to kill him under the cover. If police needed to cover it with this story, for them the best time was just after the incident when the international pressure was full blown. Now, it's a back page story so chances are rare. Anyway, we must not try to become a court based on our own ideologies and desires.
ET is censoring my comments...only because its against the ROSHAN KHAYALI...
SHAME ON YOU ET
o great,don't hang the cold blooded killer of salman taseer shaheed but do all you can to divert attention away from the mujahids of islam who killed bhatti. who are they trying to fool? we all know that our govt. is too helpless in front of the islamic fascists and cannot prosecute them.the courts don't convict them as the judges fear for their lives.mumtaz qadri inspite of confessing is still allowed to live comfortably with financial support for his family by a barelvi extremist organisation while poor sherry is forced to live in fear of her life.
We need more people like salman taseer shaheed and sherry rehman,people who are not afraid to speak the truth and call a spade a spade.
What is wrong is wrong,killing people who tell the truth won't make it right.
o what a pathetic attempt at a coverup!!
the federal interior minister himself name islamic terrorist group as behind it and said the killers are hiding in the middle east.now to save the islamic fascists this cock and bull story is being propagated to save the skins of our 'strategic assets'. are we this stupid that we'll accept this false story.the islamic fascists are not our assets,they never were,they are and always have been a big strategic liability.these savages want to take us back to the society of the cavemen,this is just another attempt to save the islamic fanatics.
Yeah! family rivalry is most likely cause with blue aliens from Neptune being a close second
Will the Express Tribune EVER 'mistakenly' publish a news item in favor of the ISLAMISTS too???
Any random person calls to claim responsiblity on behalf of taliban and you publish a news item based on that, resulting in defamation of Pakistan across the World! The liberals should take a lesson from this episode and STOP exaggerating things and assuming conclusions out of baseless news! LIBERAL FASCISM at its peak!!!!
how much hate and prejudice you all people have filled inside you?? when this newspaper pointed out without any clue that this was done by Ilyas kashmiri and al qaeda did any one of you say it was a false story?? all of you jumbed into the band wagon of demonizing you religion and saying crap about islam. but now when the same newspaper tells you qouting the same sources that this was done because of family rivalry u start saying its a lie? none of you is blaming the newspaper for printing the first story without proper investigation instead you follow the same prejudice that has filled the hearts of all of us.. i pray that Allah swt gives us all guidance because its upto Him otherwise most of us Pakistanis deserve the worst of His wrath.
Islamabad's dirty police.
Well well now we know why he was so secretive about his movements. The man is fighting with relatives over property and our own liberal intecllectuals are all out to criticize the country's track record with regard to minorities. May i remind them that this is there country and maybe if we spent our time fixing things rather rather than criticizing things would be a lot better.
strange....when police said (without investigation) that the murder is linked to Taliban, you guys believed it without a single question...but now when the police is saying (with investigation) that the murder has some other motives you guys are showing extremism by simply not accepting it. Strange...
We should refrain from making false accusations against Pakistan.
The courts have been tired and maligned by public for releasing all the fanatic terrorists for lack of proof. Now they have to use some other tick so the blame is distributed. Why would Bhatti make a video about his own impending murder? Salem Sahahzad has also been killed by his family members and so is Salman Taseer! Punjab govt and its police would do anything to protect the terrorists.
yes. i started believing in santa claus.
Waa arey waah !! 3 Cheers to " honest" and " efficent" investigators !!!
I knew it earlier. there is no religious victimisation in the "land of pure"
BS with capital letters. As if his fourth wife who was living abroad and due to jealousy killed Osama Bin Laden. Actually she was the one who hired US marines with sales of Al-Qaida blood diamonds, as the chairman of Investigation Team reveals. Next step, she must be arrested and made to confess. What a people of banana republic!
I sympathize with the investigators; you cannot pinpoint an extremist out of a pool of 500,000 strategic assets.
Daily targeted killings of minorities all across Pakistan, attempts at genocide of shiites in Kurram, Quetta and DI Khan and dozens of suicide bombings in Pakistan over the past so many years- all are family disputes.
This is a cover up, because of international pressure. When are we going to start speaking truth? We are only hurting us, no body else.
Bull!
“Shahbaz’s murder is said to be linked to a ‘chronic rivalry’ with relatives who lived in Faisalabad five years ago,” revealed an investigator associated with the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). What is next, are they (JIT) going to reveal that Governor Taseer's own daughter is a suspect in his murder?
Not killed by crazy mullahs? seriously? What a buzz kill. All that ban publicity and turns out one of their own coreligionist and/or private enemies did the job.Wonder if the western media would pick on this story!