ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A court on Saturday sentenced to death an elite police guard who assassinated a leading secular politician he had been charged with protecting, a killing that sent shockwaves throughout Pakistan and was seen as a clear marker of growing religious intolerance and extremism in the country.
The news made international headlines not just because of the prominence of the politician who was killed, Salman Taseer, but because the killer was celebrated by many in Pakistan, including lawyers who showered him with rose petals and garlands at a court appearance.
Judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah announced the sentence for the guard, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, in an antiterrorism court at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. “Nobody can be given a license to kill on any pretext,” the judge was quoted as saying after the end of the trial.
The ruling was unusual in Pakistan; frightened justices in recent years have been cowed into releasing Islamic militants or letting them off with light sentences. The judgment was especially noteworthy in such a high-profile case against a man whose popularity grew with his confession and defense of the killing on religious grounds.
Mr. Taseer, the governor of Punjab Province, was one of the country’s most outspoken opponents of the nation’s controversial blasphemy law, which mandate a death sentence for anyone convicted of insulting Islam.
Liberals and rights activists were encouraged by the verdict, but noted that it could be overturned in appeals.
“Today’s judgment is a positive development whereby norms of justice have prevailed,” said Raza Rumi, a political analyst and columnist in the eastern city of Lahore. “Pakistan cannot be allowed to become a vigilante society, and the state — its judges and prosecutors — need to uphold the law.”
No matter what happens with the case, however, Mr. Taseer’s death has cast a pall over discussions of the blasphemy law — which had become something of a test case for debate of how religion and politics mix in Pakistan. That trend continued Saturday. The usually voluble Pakistani news media dutifully covered the story, but news broadcasts were mainly devoid of the normal commentary or debate. “Local media’s muted coverage of the sentence is reflective of the fear factor and the polarization within the society,” Mr. Rumi said.
Mr. Qadri, 26, was convicted of murder and committing an act of terrorism. A lawyer for Mr. Qadri told the Dawn channel that an appeal would be filed.
Mr. Qadri killed Mr. Taseer in a hail of bullets on Jan. 4, shooting him at close range.
Rights groups have said the blasphemy law that Mr. Taseer challenged has been used to persecute minorities, especially Christians. The law was introduced in the 1980s under the military dictatorship of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq as part of a policy of promoting Islam to unite Pakistan’s fractious society.
On Saturday, dozens of supporters of Mr. Qadri gathered outside the jail and chanted slogans against the sentence, while the judge slipped out a back door.
One man yelled: “By punishing one Mumtaz Qadri, you will produce a thousand Mumtaz Qadris!” Reuters reported.
At least 1,000 people eventually took to the streets of Rawalpindi in protest, according to Reuters, and a television channel said hundreds more were demonstrating in Lahore and Karachi.
Liaqat Baloch, the secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s most organized Islamic political party, condemned the ruling, saying in a statement that “Salman Taseer had himself invited death by issuing blasphemous statements and the accused Mumtaz Qadri did not deserve death.”
Mr. Taseer’s supporters have argued that his calling for a repeal of the blasphemy law did not constitute blasphemy.
By SALMAN MASOOD
Source: nytimes.com