Adil Najam
Salman Taseer – Governor Punjab, businessman, media mogul, PPP leader – was gunned down outside a restaurant in Kohsar Market, Islamabad, by one of his own guards. The guard – reportedly, a Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri – was part of the security Elite Force depute assigned to keep Salman Taseer safe gunned down the Punjab Governor with as many as 27 bullets. Later the guard handed himself to the police and said that he had killed Salman Taseer because of his vocal opposition to the Blasphemy Law.
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri may have pulled the trigger but let us all hang our head in shame today because Salman Taseer was killed by the intolerance, the hatred, the extremism, the vigilantism, the violence and the jahalat that now defines our society. He was killed by the unchecked abundance of false sanctimony where custodians of morality have been breathing fire and instigating violence. Each one of us, including his own party, should be ashamed today for having tolerated the pall of intolerance that has eventually gunned down this man. Today’s Pakistan is defined by Mumtaz Hussain Qadris. They exist all around us. And it is all of us who tolerate them and their intolerance. It is this tolerance of intolerance that kills.
Today, it claimed yet one more victim.
Just as one example of many that we should have been paying heed to already, it was less than a month ago that a dispicable man in Peshawar was publicly offering money to anyone who would murder in the name of the blasphemy law. The news flashed on the media. Was highlighted in disgust by those like us. Yet, no action was taken; indeed, not even note was taken by those in power. It was ignored as mere ‘josh i khitaabat’ and emotionalism. It was obviously more. The tragedy is that there are too many like this man. Are people like him not responsible for spreading hatred and the results of that hatred? People instigating violence. People celebrating violence. People supporting violence. All of these people are responsible for Salman Taseer’s death. As are all of those who have stood silent and let these merchants of violence sell their wares. (Full story here).
At one level the details of what exactly happened in Islamabad today are less important than what we have allowed to happen in our societies for all the years that have led to this day, but for those who may not have seen the (still developing) details, here is an update from Dawn:
Gunmen killed the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, in Islamabad on Tuesday, his spokesman said. “Yes, he has died,” said the spokesman for Salman Taseer. Police official Mohammad Iftikhar said Taseer was gunned down by one of his elite security force protectors. Five other people were wounded as other security personnel responded to the attack. Police said earlier Taseer had been shot nine times and wounded near his Islamabad home in the F6 sector and close to Kohsar market, a popular shopping and cafe spot frequented by wealthy Pakistanis and expatriates.
Another police official, Hasan Iqbal, said a pair of witnesses told the police that as the governor was leaving his vehicle, a man from his security squad fired at him. Taseer then fell, while other police officials fired on the attacker. In recent days, as the People’s Party has faced the loss of its coalition partners, the 56-year-old Taseer has insisted that the government will survive. But it was his stance against the blasphemy laws that apparently led to his killing.
Interior Minister Rahman Malik told reporters that the suspect in the case had surrendered to police and told them he killed Taseer because “the governor described the blasphemy laws as a black law.” Taseer was believed to be meeting someone for a meal, Malik said. Other members of his security detail were being questioned, Malik said. The security for Taseer was provided by the Punjab government. “We will see whether it was an individual act or someone had asked him” to do it, Malik said of the attacker.
The maniacs in society who go around preaching wholesale butchery such as the maniacal engineer and his coterie of cronies who believe that the prophet of Islam would be happy with their barbarism are not even worthy of been reffered to as human what to talk of their been muslims.
I once saw Salmaan Taseer. He was driving his own car deviod of security.. living in his own house at cavalry ground rather then at.. the governor’s house
A breath of fresh air in our VIP culture…
He paid a terrible price for believing in this country..
Yes He is a myrter.. a myrter like Mohtarma before him.
Both dead because they believed in a country where every one can live in peace and harmony,
If the rump PPP has any guts left.. Its time they did away with this repulsive piece of legislation once an for all!!!
Sadly, another corrupt and ignorant politician is being glorified as a Hero and Shaheed by His mourners and supporters. Sad very very sad.
It also proves that there is no room for extremists in our society; sometimes they are killed on borders by Americans while other they are killed by guards.
Now Salmaan’s supports supporters should pay respect to words of him. Taseer always despised Mullahs therefore, instead of hiring a Mullah for his funerals, they should ask some modern , for instance Rehman Malik ,Sherry Rehman or even singer Salman Ahmed to pay tribute. Please! do respect his feelings.
RIP. What a sad day for Pakistan. Another sad day. Reminds me of so many sad days. Violence. Killings. Threats.
I did not realize that the Blasphemy issue has really riled up the Mullahs that much. But then, if the Urdu article above by a certain ‘Professor’ is to go by, there have been plenty of people, even the so-called ‘educated’ ones, who at least suggest violence. Read between the lines of the Urdu article. Perhaps translate it so that entire world knows the cancerous elements inside Pakistan are not limited to some tribal-backwaters. But is to be found in the heartland itself.
I don’t know much about Taseer. The little I know is that he was a fierce PPP Jiala who was literally tortured by the Sharif goverments in the 90s. But some time a man can do one thing noble and you stand up and say: ‘Whoa! That’s courage’. His name was mentioned prominently during the poor lady Asia’s Blasphemy case. He was again and again in the news by supporting her. And again and again there were threats against him. I dismissed those threats because, I thought, being the Governer of Punjab, he is well protected.
But no one is ever sufficiently protected in Pakistan if the GHQ itself gets attacked in broad daylight.
Just like Mayor Bloomberg of NYC managed to earned a lot of respect (I used to dislike him) by standing up, against the many emotions, for the building of a Mosque near Ground Zero, so did Salman Taseer by one act of blatant defiance by supporting Ms. Asia.
As to those who still harbors the idea that a Prophet of a billion+ people can be insulted by a peasant girl I say: You are wrong! And you are complicit in not only this murder but also of many others of this kind.
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “SubhanAllah! ………………..Guard should be rewarded by Gold Medal :)”
– “Mr ..y ur saying that thing yar ? have you heard any thing from his mouth directly abt his religious point of view?”
– “absolute height of social and religious intolerance”
– “انا للہ و انا الیہ راجعون”
– “The problem is not of that gaurd. but terrorism….there is hundered of such GAURDS still in Our Country:(”
– “intolerance!!”
انا للہ و انا الیہ راجعون