Pakistan killing shines light on religious rift

The outpouring of support for a bodyguard who shot and killed one of Pakistan's most prominent liberal politicians this week has spotlighted a rift between secular and religious forces in Pakistan.

As a magistrate's hearing in Islamabad on Wednesday, the killer, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, 26, charged with murder and terrorism, was showered him with rose petals and garlands by hundreds of supporters. Moderate religious leaders refused to condemn the assassination, and some hard-line religious leaders appeared to condone the attack.

A national group of 500 religious scholars praised him and issued a warning to those who mourned Taseer.

"One who supports a blasphemer is also a blasphemer," the group said in a statement, which warned journalists, politicians and intellectuals to "learn" from the killing. "What Qadri did has made every Muslim proud."

Meantime, thousands mourned the slain Punjab Province governor, Salman Taseer, buried amid tight security Wednesday in Lahore. Taseer,  a prominent voice for secularism who had recently spoken out against Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws, sparking fury among the country's conservative religious community, was shot more than two dozen times outside a shopping complex in a wealthy area of the capital. The authorities said Qadri, a member of the elite police force assigned to Taseer's security detail, confessed afterward. Photos taken at the scene showed him smiling.

Many newspapers, activists and politicians condemned the killing. A headline in the Daily Times, a liberal newspaper published by Taseer, read: "A brave man cut down by fanaticism." About 150 people holding placards reading "We reject religious extremism" attended a candlelight vigil at the site of the slaying.

The killing has stunned the ruling Pakistan People's Party, already struggling to hold on to power after a key coalition partner quit the government Monday.

President Asif Ali Zardari, a friend and ally of Taseer in the PPP, stayed away from the funeral out of concern for his own security, a did many of the nation's top politicians, including Taseer's chief rival in Punjab and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif. Government ministers and party officials, meantime,  indicated that they were dropping the campaign to change the blasphemy laws that Taseer had championed.

Taseer himself seemed either unaware or unconcerned at the risks of his outspokenness on the issue of religious extremism.

In an interview with the BBC in November, Taseer said: "I can't be the governor of a province and be a coward as well. I have to say what my conscience is telling me. And I feel that the Pakistan that we want is a progressive and a liberal Pakistan, and not a Pakistan of darkness, and persecution, and of cutting off hands and cutting off heads. And if you come to the country and … mix with the ordinary Pakistanis, they're a very liberal and a very … humane people.

"I feel that we have taken tough times, but we've come out of it. And of course there's been extremist militancy against us but the people of Pakistan don't support it.

More details about the killer, Qadri, were revealed Wednesday. A follower of Dawat-e-Islami, a religious party based in Karachi, Qadri was declared a security risk when joining the Special Forces branch of the Punjab police in 2002 because of his extreme religious views, according to a senior Pakistani police official.

Police said they were investigating whether Qadri acted alone: Taseer took 27 bullets, yet not a single shot was fired by his security detail.