Pakistan

Taseer’s murder: Religious right heralds the assassin as ‘hero’

Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, other religious organisations take out rallies to “celebrate” the assassination of Salmaan Taseer.

Express January 06, 2011

GUJRAT: Jamaat Ahle Sunnat and other religious organisations took out rallies to “celebrate” the assassination of Governor Salmaan Taseer, marked by aerial firing and tributes to the assassin, Mumtaz Hussain Qadri. Central chief Alami Tanzeem Ahl-e-Sunnat Pir Muhammad Afzal Qadri, who led the rally, declared the assassin a ‘hero of the Muslim world,’ adding the government should not take any action against him.

Declaring Jamaat Ahle Sunnat’s support for the assassin, Afzal Qadri praised him “for killing a blasphemer.”

“We will pursue [Mumtaz Hussain Qadri’s] case in the court,” he said, adding that the media should not call Taseer shaheed (martyr) and should call the assassin Qadri a ghazi (hero).

Meanwhile he also announced a 40 day celebration on behalf of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat to mark Taseer’s assassination.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (6)

Khalid | 13 years ago | Reply There are laws against incitement violence. What government is doing-laying eggs. Liberals please know, Maududis and Muftis followers will soon come and kill all liberals and Pro Jinah Pakistanis. Fight them or they will kill you all. khalikd

QuranVsHadith | 13 years ago | Reply Allah does not need us to defend HIM.....we need HIM to defend us, especially against those who do these disgusting things in HIS name. They think they will find a place in heaven.....they are sadly mistaken.

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Sadiq | 13 years ago | Reply The Government is compromised by self-interest to do anything about the rampant zealots.We need action to preserve our liberties. There should be an FIR registered against any Mullah who issues a fatwa to kill someone for incitemnt to murder. These people cannot be allowed to set up a legal framework outside the law of the country

Dr Muhammad | 13 years ago | Reply What a way to start the new year, with the Punjab governer assassinated. Why must murder be termed "Shahadat" and a killer be celebrated as a "Ghazi". I have had enough of religion in Pakistan. It's time for religion to be divorced from the state at gunpoint if needed, and militant religious clerics and their followers to be dealt with sternly, even at the cost of death, and all religious education to become independent of the state. No more must we be force fed that we are all Muslims. There is no such thing as a "Muslim". There are Sunnis, Shias, Barelvis, Deobandies, etc etc but not Muslims. How many more murders must I see before something is actaully done to rein in these zealots. If they are so eager to enter heaven, then we must give them what they want: DEATH.

S A Rajput | 13 years ago | Reply Expressing deep sympathy and condolence with the grieved family of Salman Tassir, one wuold like to point out that the method/manner and the place of crime, the federal territory, where the powerful Governor of Punjab, has been heartlessly killed, an act immediately followed by approving gestures of religious activists, all this scenario makes one thing very clear,but which many would not like to believe. Facts are facts and you cannot deny this bitter fact of our justice system under which up-to date, no one who takes the law in his hand and kills someone with religious postures/motives, even if caught red-handed, is never has ever been awarded punishment by the courts. All religiously motivated killers are set free under pressure. In view of such a state-of affairs, justice and fair play to all citizens, the very purpose for which the state exists, seems to have been forgotten, as far as this land of the pure is concerned. for all the time to come.

Hammad Ali | 13 years ago | Reply Why such people are not arrested who incite terrorism, whereas, they keep on killing whoever raises voice against suicide bombings etc... ??

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