Pak Punjab Governor Taseer killed by own security guard

Islamabad, Jan 4 (PTI) Salmaan Taseer, Governor of
Pakistan's powerful Punjab province and a key aide of
President Asif Ali Zardari, was on Tuesday assassinated here
by one of his security guards who was angered by his
opposition to a controversial blasphemy law.
66-year-old Taseer, a senior leader of the ruling PPP,
was getting into his car at Kohsar Market in Islamabad's posh
Sector F-6/3 when the guard from the Elite Force of Punjab
Police shot him with an automatic weapon at a close range,
officials said, adding the Governor was hit by nine bullets
and sustained severe injuries to the neck and chest.
The Governor was rushed to the Polyclinic Hospital,
where he succumbed to his injuries, his spokesman Farrukh Shah
said.
Doctors made an unsuccessful attempt to revive him
before declaring him dead.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in
Karachi that the guard named Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who
belonged to Rawalpindi, had surrendered after shooting the
Governor.
"When the Governor was getting into his car, the guard
shot him. After firing, he put down his weapon and surrendered
to police, saying he had shot (Taseer) because he called the
blasphemy law a black law," Malik said.
"That is what the bodyguard says but we will hold
thorough investigations and find out if this was the real
reason for the assassination of the Governor Punjab," he said.
All members of the Elite Force who were guarding
Taseer had been detained but only Qadri was formally arrested
on the basis of his confession, Malik said.
TV channels beamed photographs of the bearded Qadri
being taken away in a police van.
"It's difficult (to prevent such attacks) when it's
someone from within your own circle. We will probe whether it
was an individual act or someone got him to kill (the
Governor)," Malik said.
Taseer had openly opposed the blasphemy law, which was
introduced during the tenure of late President Zia-ul-Haq, and
campaigned for the pardon of Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old
Christian woman and mother of five, who was sentenced to death
after being convicted for insulting Prophet Mohammad.
The colourful Governor, who often used Twitter to
express his opinion, had tweeted some days ago that he would
continue to speak out against the blasphemy law despite
backslash from hardline and religious elements.
Taseer's killing was the most high-profile
assassination of a political leader in Pakistan since the
murder of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
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