Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[ramana]

Nightwatch on the events in TSP

Pakistan: An elite police commando from the provincial police force who was assigned as a bodyguard for the governor of Punjab Province murdered the governor today in Islamabad. The commando dropped his weapon and surrendered to the police, bragging that he was proud he killed a blasphemer. With that, Pakistan's political crisis deepened.



The commando killed Governor Salman Taseer because the governor openly criticized Pakistan's law that requires execution for blasphemy against, not just god, but Mohammed and Islam. In a strict interpretation of blasphemy, it is a denunciation of god, not of a prophet or a set of religious beliefs. That is not the Pakistani law, however.



Taseer advocated a pardon for Aasia Bibi, a Christian factory worker who was convicted of blasphemy against the prophet on the testimony of her Muslim co-workers. Taseer thought this was unjust.



His murder is the most sensational since the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.



Comment: The most sensational attacks by fundamentalists have all involved bodyguards. They include the most serious assassination attempts against Musharraf when he was President; the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the assassination of Governor Taseer. In addition every attempt to attack military facilities in Rawalpindi has involved cooperation by guards.



Taseer's assassin was no wild-eyed Islamist. He was a trained and vetted police commando. And that is the point. The ranks of Pakistan's security forces are dominated by Islamists. They take seriously their oath to uphold Pakistan's laws, including the blasphemy law. The popular culture has become Islamist, in sympathy if not in action, and the political and military elite are a small modern minority.



There is no need to search for the black hand of al Qaida. The investigation will find that the murderer discussed his sense of outrage with comrades. The majority of Pakistanis might not approve of the method, but will not denounce the act of stopping a blasphemer.