Governor Salman Taseer, member of the ruling Pakistani Peoples Party and governor of the Punjab Province, was assassinated today by one of his guards in the capital city of Islamabad.
The assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, was a personal bodyguard and a member of Punjab’s Elite Forces. He confessed to the assassination and said he was prompted by Taseer’s condemnation of Pakistan’s blasphemy law as a “black law.”
Shops across the Punjabi capital city of Lahore were closed for much of the day in the wake of the killing, as members of the Pakistani Peoples Party protested and blocked traffic.
PHOTO CAPTION
Commando of Pakistan's Elite force Mumtaz Qadri, right, who allegedly killed Punjab's governor Salman Taseer sits in a police custody in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011.
Agencies