A state funeral was held Wednesday morning in Pakistan
for Salman Taseer, the murdered governor of the province
of Punjab. Taseer was shot dead Tuesday
by one of his own bodyguards in a market in Islamabad.
Security was tight as mourners gathered at the governors’
official residence in Lahore. Taseer’s
coffin was brought to the residence by ambulance and late flown by helicopter
to his burial site.
Taseer, a 66 year old business and media tycoon, had
supported pardoning Asia Bibi, a Christan woman sentence to death for insulting
the prophet Muhammad.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described his death as
“a great loss”, Saying he had promoted tolerance.
The governor a senior member of the governing Pakistan
people’s Party (PPP) had recently angered Islamists by appealing for a
Christian woman, sentence to death for blasphemy, to be pardoned.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared three days of
national mourning and appealed for calm. However, some religious leaders have
praised the governor’s killer and called for a boycott of the ceremonies in Lahore,
says the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad.
Five hundred scholars from the moderate Barelvi sect of
Sunni Muslims have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the
assassination could suffer the same fate.
One of the Mr. Taseer’s bodyguards, Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri,
was detained immediately after the shooting at Koshar Market in Islamabad.
He confessed to the murder, said Pakistan’s
interior minister, Rehman Malik.
Police are now questioning the rest of Mr Taseer’s security
detail and are also carrying out an inquiry into the governor’s security
arrangements.
We will investigate whether it was an individual act or
there is some organization behind it, “ Mr Malik told a news conference.
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