Pakistan's Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, an outspoken leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, was on Tuesday assassinated by one of his security guards in a gun attack at a market in the heart of Islamabad. Taseer was getting into his car at Kohsar Market in Islamabad's posh Sector F6/3 area when the guard from the elite force of Punjab police shot him with an automatic weapon at a close range. He was rushed to the Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
International diplomats condemned the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province and a key aide of President Asif Ali Zardari.
A Pakistani Taliban faction linked to terrorist Qari Hussain on Thursday claimed responsibility for the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, saying the 'man who killed him was from among us'."We claim responsibility for the killing of Salmaan Taseer. The Punjab governor was our target and we have planned this programme and the man who killed him was from among us," said Shakirullah Shakir, a spokesman for the Fidayeen group associated with Qari Hussain.
His future visit to India is likely to be banned as he allegedly concealed the fact that his father was a Pakistani.
A total of 22 people, including many policemen, have been arrested by Pakistani authorities over the killing of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, amid reports that a top official had warned about the extremist leanings of the assassin of the outspoken Pakistan Peoples Party leader.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to expose and punish those responsible for the assassination of Salmaan Taseer and said that the Punjab Governor was "killed to sharpen the polarisation in society to derail the democratic process".
Pakistani investigators on Wednesday probed the possibility of a larger conspiracy behind the killing of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer by his bodyguard as they arrested 23 people.
Amid chaos and high-drama, the a ssassin of the outspoken Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was on Thursday remanded in a five-day police custody by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court, where his supporters greeted him with rose petals.
A stalwart and outspoken politician and a business tycoon, Pakistan's Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer assassinated by one of his security guards in a gun attack at a market in Islamabad on Tuesday, donned many roles in his career that expanded over four decades. In his hey days he was an icon of youth politics in Pakistan and was know for his proximity with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir. But among all of this, not many are aware of Taseer's Indian connection.
Suspicion has grown over whether the Pakistani policeman who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer acted on his own or was assisted in the act following emergence of a raft of evidence that he had been declared unfit for guarding VIPs because of his extremist leanings.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday handed down death sentence to the police guard who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer for calling for changes in the country's controversial blasphemy law.
Salmaan Taseer, governor of Pakistan's powerful Punjab province and a key aide of President Asif Ali Zardari, was on Tuesday assassinated in Islamabad by one of his security guards who was angered by his opposition to a controversial blasphemy law
A Pakistani policeman attached to Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani's security detail has been detained along with an official of the country's electronic media watchdog in connection with Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer's assassination, while investigators are looking for a cleric who motivated the killer. Mumtaz Qadri, the Elite Force guard gunned down 66-year-old Taseer in Islamabad on Tuesday for opposing the controversial blasphemy law.
An anti-terrorism court has refused to issue arrest warrants for two clerics whose fiery speeches reportedly incited the police guard who gunned down Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer for criticising Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law. Investigators probing the governor's assassination had submitted an application to Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court Judge Malik Mohammad Akram Awan, seeking warrants for the arrest of the unnamed clerics.
A Pakistani police guard said he had no regrets for gunning down Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, calling him an "apostate", as an anti-terrorism court indicted him for the assassination. Mumtaz Qadri, 26, who has already admitted gunning down Taseer outside a restaurant in Islamabad on January 4, was indicted on a murder charge during in-camera proceedings at Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, his lawyers said.
The assassin of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer confessed in a Pakistani court that he had acted alone in killing the politician and that he he had been planning the attack before being deployed to guard him.
Nearly two months after Shahbaz Taseer, the son of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was kidnapped, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Monday said he was alive and was being held near the border with Afghanistan.
The Pakistani judge who gave the death sentence to Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer's self-confessed assassin has sought refuge in Saudi Arabia with his family after receiving death threats from religious extremists.
Slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Interior Minister Rehman Malik were among those who were awarded the country's highest honour on Pakistan Day on Friday. Taseer, who was gunned down by a policeman last year for his calls for reforming the controversial blasphemy law, was awarded the Nishan-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's highest civilian award. The award was received by his widow Aamna Taseer.
Pakistani police have arrested four suspects in connection with the kidnapping of Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, police officials said on Saturday.
A Pakistani court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of death sentence given to the self-confessed assassin of Governor Salmaan Taseer till it decided his appeal against the verdict.
The tragic assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer has "underscored the imperative need for Pakistani society to marginalise and eliminate extremist tendencies," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.
Shahbaz Taseer, the son of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer who was killed for opposing Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, was today abducted by four gunmen near his office in Lahore.
Muhammad Afzal Chishti, who is secretary general of the 'ulema' or clerics wing of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, had been hiding in different places over the past seven months due to the threats he began receiving shortly after he led Taseer's 'namaz-e-janaza' in Lahore on January 5.
Saiful Malook, the Pakistani prosecutor who was pursuing the case against the police guard who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, has withdrawn from the case, citing security concerns. Mumtaz Qadri shot dead Taseer on January 4 in the heart of the capital because he was angered by the governor's campaign to free a Christian woman sentenced to death under the draconian blasphemy law.
The Pakistani police on Wednesday charged the policeman who assassinated Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer with murder and terrorism even as he appeared to be unrepentant for his actions. Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the Elite Force personnel who gunned down Taseer in a market in Islamabad on Tuesday, was booked under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act. Qadri was presented before Judicial Magistrate Malik Naeem Shaukat, who granted transit custody to police.
A group of over 500 Pakistani scholars and clerics have described the policeman who gunned down Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer as a Ghazi (an Islamic warrior) and have warned against any expression of sympathy for the slain Pakistan People's Party leader, saying it would tantamount to an act of blasphemy.
A punitive majoritarian State can make an example of individuals who raise their voice in criticism of the prime minister and divisive politics, warns Sunil Sethi.
"This is an individual who had worked hard to promote tolerance, and his loss is a great one for Pakistan," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, said.
Hard-line clerics are now turning their anger toward another leading member of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, Sherry Rehman, who, like Taseer, called for changes aimed at reforming the blasphemy law after a Pakistani Christian woman accused of insulting the prophet Muhammad was given the death penalty.
Pakistani ministers, politicians and other prominent figures were conspicuous by their absence at the funeral prayers for 95 members of the minority Ahmedi sect killed in terror attacks on two mosques in Lahore. Most sections of the electronic media too did not cover the burial ceremony at Rabwah in Chenab Nagaron Saturday and Sunday.
Abductors of the son of slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer and American aid worker Warren Weinstein are not militants, but organised extortion gangs who might have sold them to bigger bidders, Pakistani law enforcement agencies fear.
Blasphemy furore hit Pakistan again as two Christian women were beaten and publicly humiliated by an angry mob in Lahore apparently over allegations of frivolous religious sacrilege.
In an interview to Council of Foreign Relations website, Stephen P. Cohen, a leading expert on Pakistan, talks about the ongoing political crisis, Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer's assassination, growing sense of insecurity in Pakistan, importance of China and more.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday said his government will not amend the blasphemy law, which has been at the centre of a raging controversy since the assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer over his opposition to the statute.
A Pakistani court has sentenced an imam and his son to life imprisonment after convicting them on controversial blasphemy charges after they removed a poster containing Quranic verses, officials said.
Pakistani authorities enhanced security for Asia Bibi, the Christian woman who triggered a blasphemy furore in the country and in whose defence Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer lost his life, following reports of a threat to her life. The government of Punjab government beefed up security for 45-year-old Asia Bibi in Sheikhupura jail, where she is currently on death row, officials said.
I was flogged about 500 in 3 days, they cut my back with blades and removed nails from my hands and feet," said Shahbaz Taseer of the ordeal he endured.
The article also said that the opposition Congress party has little to offer other than the dynastic principle.
The article is in stark contrast to the TIME cover story done on Modi earlier this month titled 'India's Divider in Chief', written by Aatish Taseer, son of Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and late Pakistani politician and businessman Salmaan Taseer.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances