Protests broke out across Pakistan on Monday after the hanging of a policeman who assassinated an influential politician opposed to the blasphemy laws.
Malik Mumtaz Qadri killed Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, in 2011, and defended his act on the grounds he had defended a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.Major markets including Wholes Sale cloth market of Andhi Khoi, Chowk Bazar, Hussain Agahi Bazar, Grain market, Iron market, and fruit-vegetable market remained closed in Multan city to mourn the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, the security guard who killed late Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer. Later a big rally was organised after Zuhr prayer from mosque "Phool Hut" under the leadership of Qari Ahmed Mian, Chief of Tehrik Tahaffuz Namoos-e Risalat, Allama Khalid Mehmood Nadeem(Jamiat Ahle Hadith) Ayyub Mughal of JUP. More than 300 people mostly baton weilded youths took part in the rally to express their anger against the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri.They called him" Hero" of Islam.Participants were shouting anti Government and anti blasphemy slogans. The rally concluded at Chowk Hussain Agahi after passing through the Chowk Bazar.Qari Ahmed Mian declared that Ghaibana Namaz-e-Janaza (Funeral prayer in absentia) will be offered in every nook and corner of Pakistan and he announced a country wide movement against the Government for hanging an Aashiq-e-Rasool.The activists also burnt the effigy of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif
Taseer’s killing exposed deep divisions across Pakistani society. A group of Islamist lawyers showered Qadri with rose petals at a court appearance, while 500 clerics endorsed his actions and warned against attending Taseer’s funeral.
Qadri’s hanging in the main prison of Rawalpindi just outside Islamabad prompted Islamist protests in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan’s biggest cities.
In Karachi, protesters sought to block the main Shahrah-e-Faisal highway linking the city centre to the airport. Lahore authorities had to close the city’s newly built metro bus service in anticipation of protests.
An intelligence official in Islamabad told the FT that authorities had expected protests in the city and had raised security around government buildings and diplomatic quarters. “No one is willing to take chances,” he said. “There will be protests, the only question is how long will they be sustained.”
Analysts said the reaction to the hanging once again highlighted Pakistan’s sectarian schisms.
Hardline Islamists have exerted growing influence since the 1980s, when General Zia ul-Haq, the late dictator, oversaw generous support from the US and Saudi Arabia for the mujahideen warriors who resisted Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
“Religiosity has penetrated so deep in Pakistani society that the commitment to the nation-state has weakened over time,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a commentator. “It is a difficult time for Pakistan. There are even people within the government who are committed to religion in this way.”
Western diplomats say Sunni Muslim clerics who follow the hardline Wahhabi tradition practised in Saudi Arabia are making inroads, committed to what some Pakistanis lament as a “Saudi-isation” of the country.Qadri, a police bodyguard to Salman Taseer, shot the liberal Punjab governor 28 times at an Islamabad market in 2011.
He said he was angry at the politician's calls to reform the blasphemy law.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in the Islamic republic, and Qadri was hailed as a hero by many conservatives eager to drown out calls to soften the legislation.
Critics say the law -- which carries the death penalty -- is largely misused, with hundreds languishing in jails under false charges.
Analyst Hasan Askari said the next 24 hours would be "sensitive" for the government, adding that Islamabad had weighed the danger of mass violence against the need to "wash away the suspicion" of sympathy for militancy.
The biggest protest was held in the port mega-city of Karachi Monday afternoon, with around 7,000 people taking to the streets.
In the eastern city of Lahore, around another thousand people protested, while hundreds others demonstrated in Pakistan-held Kashmir, Peshawar, Multan, and other smaller cities.
Up to 900 people demonstrated in the southwestern city of Quetta.
Qadri was hanged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail early Monday, senior local police official Sajjid Gondal told AFP.
National media played down news of the execution and the protests on orders of the government, two senior anchors told AFP.
Most channels led their bulletins with Pakistan's win for best short documentary at the Oscars.
Mosques near Qadri's family home broadcast the news, with cries heard from inside the house as hundreds of mourners arrived. The funeral is expected to be held Tuesday.
"I have no regrets," Qadri's brother Malik Abid told AFP, tears rolling down his cheeks, while women chanted nearby.
He said the family had been called to the prison Sunday evening by officials who said Qadri was unwell.
- 'Ready to sacrifice' -
But when they arrived, Qadri greeted them with the news that authorities had deceived them and that his execution was imminent.
"I am proud of the martyrdom of my son," Qadri's father Bashir Awan told AFP, adding he was ready to sacrifice all five of his other sons "for the honour of the Prophet".
Taseer's son Shehryar said on Twitter the hanging was a victory for Pakistan, but not for his family.
"The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants," he wrote, referring to his sibling Shahbaz Taseer, who was kidnapped later in 2011 -- reportedly by the Taliban.
As well as calling for blasphemy law reform, Taseer had been vocal in his support of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who has been on death row since 2010 after being found guilty of insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
Qadri's lawyers drew on Islamic texts to argue that he was justified in killing Taseer, saying that by criticising the law the politician was himself guilty of blasphemy.
That argument was rejected by the Supreme Court which in December upheld the death sentence, sparking rallies.
Pakistan ended a six-year moratorium on the death penalty in December 2014. Last month authorities announced they had executed 332 people since then.
Rights group Amnesty International condemned the execution.
"The death penalty is always a human rights violation, regardless of the circumstances or nature of the crime," said the group's South Asia regional director, Champa Patel.