Adil Najam
Shahbaz Bhatti – Pakistan’s Minister for Minority Affairs, son of Jacob Bhatti, defender of minority rights and tolerance in Pakistan, and the only Christian Minister in the current cabinet – was gunned down today by the enemies of Pakistan, the enemies of humanity, and enemies of all that is decent and right.
Today, once again, we have one less good Pakistani amongst us. Today, once again, all of us should be ashamed at the intolerance that we have bred and tolerated around us.
Here is a report from Dawn on the news:
Gunmen shot and killed Pakistan’s government minister for religious minorities on Wednesday, the latest attack on a high-profile Pakistani figure who had urged reforming harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.
Shahbaz Bhatti was on his way to work in Islamabad when unknown gunmen riddled his car with bullets, police officer Mohmmad Iqbal said. The minister arrived dead at Shifa Hospital and his driver was also wounded badly, hospital spokesman Asmatullah Qureshi said.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the minister had been “punished” for being a blasphemer.
Witnesses said the attackers scattered leaflets signed by “The Qaeda and the Taliban of Punjab” at the attack scene, which read: “This is the punishment of this cursed man.”
Taliban militants had called for Bhatti’s death because of his attempts to amend the blasphemy law.
“He was a blasphemer like Salman Taseer,” spokesman Sajjad Mohmand said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Gulam Rahim was coming from a nearby market when he saw Bhatti’s car drive out of his house. Three men standing nearby with guns suddenly began firing at the vehicle, a dark-colored Toyota.
Two of the men opened the door and tried to pull Bhatti out, Rahim said, while a third man fired his Kalashnikov rifle repeatedly into the car. The three gunmen then sped away in a white Suzuki Mehran car, said Rahim who took shelter behind a tree.
Pakistani TV channels showed Bhatti’s vehicle afterward, its windows shattered with bullet holes all over. It was not immediately clear why Bhatti, a member of the ruling Pakistani People’s Party, did not have bodyguards with him.
After Salman Taseer’s assassination, Bhatti said he was also receiving death threats, telling AFP that he was “the highest target right now”.
But he had insisted that he would work as usual.
“I’m not talking about special security arrangements. We need to stand against these forces of terrorism because they’re terrorising the country,” Bhatti said at the time.
“I cannot trust on security…. I believe that protection can come only from heaven, so these bodyguards can’t save you.”
Pakistani government leaders condemned the attack.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani visited the hospital and offered condolences to Bhatti’s grieving relatives.
“Such acts will not deter the government’s resolve to fight terrorism and extremism,” he said, adding that the killers would not go unpunished.
“This is concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari. “The time has come for the federal government and provincial governments to speak out and to take a strong stand against these murderers to save the very essence of Pakistan.”
Bhatti’s friend Robinson Asghar said the slain minister had received threats following the death of the Punjab governor. Asghar said he had asked Bhatti to leave Pakistan for a while because of the threats, but that Bhatti had refused.
Pakistan’s information minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan, said Bhatti had played a key role in promoting interfaith harmony, and he was a great asset.
“We are sad over his tragic death,” she said, adding that the government would investigate why he did not have a security escort.
Pakistani minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, was assassinated on his way to work in Islamabad Wednesday 02 March 2011. Bhatti, a Catholic Christian, was the Pakistani cabinet’s only Christian member. Christians make up an estimated 1.5% of Pakistan’s 182m population. Bhatti was attacked in his car by three or four gunmen. Bhatti, who often turned down any need for security, was not accompanied by his guards or the security escort vehicle.
More than 99.9% of Muslims, including top political and religion figures, condemned the assassination. “This is a concerted campaign to slaughter every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan,” according to Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistan prime minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and interior minister Rehman Malik visited the victim’s family to offer condolenaces on behalf of 180m Muslims. A US funded, armed and trained terrorists claimed they were responsible for the target killing, proving barbaric Christianity is not a religion of peace. It is certainly not one of tolerance.
Christian crusaders continue to bomb, impose wars on, inade and occupy Muslim countries, and persecute Muslims who don’t provoke other people’s faiths or beliefs. The country’s blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since a Christian, Asia Bibi, provoked Muslims. However, no-one convicted under the law has been executed in the country.
On 04 January 2011, Punjab governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards in the country’s federal capital. On 27 December 2007, former primie minister and leader of Pakistan People’s Party Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.
On Thursday 27 January 2011, American under cover agent, Raymond Allen Davis, killed two men in Lahore. Davis was masterminding more terrorist activities in Pakistan, according to his retrieved telephone call logs. Top-secret CIA documents show that Davis (born 02 Oct 1974) was providing nuclear fissile material and biological agents to groups of banned terrorists, killers and bombers hired by the USA government officials as part of the 915 year old Christian crusade, or the NWO-PNAC mission to destabilise and disarm Pakistan. Davis was employed by the American under cover agencies, but this information is still withheld on the gag orders of American politicians and NWO-PNAC fans. The documents show Davis had links with the terrorists, working on the CIA’s plan to sabotage, destabilise and disarm Pakistan. Davis also worked for clandestine American Task Force 373 (TF 373), Blackwater XE, DynaCorp and other under cover American agencies still operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan. TF373 (Delta Force) is assigned to hire locals (Orange Force) to plant bombs in Pakistan, destabilise and leave the country without adequate defense. Davis, his gang of terrorists and through various front organisations were deeply involved in activities detrimental to Pakistan’s national interests. All this and more makes it an uncompromising national security issue in Pakistan.
Davis killed two men in Lahore on 27 Jan 2011. Eyewitnesses and police probes prove that the two murders were not in self defence. Even the alleged self defence does not mean licence to kill and evade justice. Moreover, Davis never applied for and nor was he ever approved (by the Pakistan government) as having diplomatic immunity. Besides, according to a letter dated 20 Jan 2011 from the USA embassy in Islamabad, asked Pakistan foreign ministry to grant or extend Davis’ non-diplomatic business visa. So, Davis, who was on business visit visa, does not have diplomatic immunity from criminal prosecution in Pakistan.
However, undue pressure (blackmails) by the US senator John Kerry (chairman of senate committee for foreign affairs and an ex-president candidate) has ‘convinced’ Pakistan government officials and politicians to provide forged diplomatic immunity documents to the courts in the country. US secretary of state, Hillary R Clintonn recently implied that her country provides conditional aid to ensure CIA terrorists are never imprisoned and never prosecuted in Pakistan.
American politicians don’t want Davis to face the music for his crimes in Pakistan.
American politicians want Davis to evade justice because the court trial in Pakistan would open Pandora’s Box and set a precedent for future prosecutions. Davis was second-in-comm-and to Jonathan Banks, the former CIA station chief in Pakistan. Banks, who ordered hundreds of drone or bomb attacks on Pakistan, fled the country after his cover was blown. The threatened trials would expose other American misdeeds in Pakistan and elsewhere.
Pakistan courts have the right to rule on the criminal case without any fear or favour, blackmails, threats, economic sanctions and political pressures. Allowing Davis to evade justice and get away with the murders would lead to a revolution or uprising in Pakistan. The courts would become laughing stock if they don’t detect the forgeries or if they cave in.
Other analysis on http://www.youtube.com/spsyed
Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one – it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, [even] after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.
5:32 Holy Quran
Allah may help and guide us all, Ameen.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2011.
Strangely mute: NA fails to formally condemn murder
By Zia Khan
ISLAMABAD:
The National Assembly failed to come up with a joint resolution condemning the murder of minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti on Thursday, repeating its failure to formally condemn the murder of Salmaan Taseer two months ago.
The house was meeting a day after the minister’s coldblooded killing in the heart of Islamabad, allegedly by homegrown Taliban from Punjab for his support for reforming the blasphemy law.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani did announce a three-day period of mourning for Bhatti, a Roman Catholic, but only after emotional speeches demanding this were made by a couple of Christian members and a token walkout by all parties.
Pakistan’s parliament has previously been swift to pass condemnation resolutions concerning perceived blasphemy incidents in Europe, though not the murder of government officials only a few miles away.
That there was no attempt made to introduce such a resolution, even by the so-called liberal parties, will be seen by many as a sign that legislators fear antagonising the extremists.
“I announce three days of national mourning,” the prime minister said on the floor of the house. “The national flag will fly at half mast.”
Earlier, Asia Nasir, a Christian member of the National Assembly from Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), set the tone for the day when she addressed the portrait of Quaid-i-Azam, overlooking the house, and pleaded for him to notice the state of minorities in his country.
“At the time of the creation of Pakistan, we (the minorities and the Muslims) were all one. But today, we feel we are out,” said Nasir. She said the Christian community would give its reaction after the funeral of Bhatti.
Akram Masih Gill of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, quoting a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) about the protection of minorities, held the government responsible for Bhatti’s murder. “He was not provided adequate security despite his repeated requests,” said Gill.
“We pay equal taxes yet we are discriminated against. No one from the minorities can become the president or the prime minister. Today, our children want to leave this country as they feel more insecure than ever,” he added.
Abdul Qadir Baloch from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz played down an attempt by certain members of religious parties, including Maulana Attaur Rehman of JUI-F, to link the killing to the Raymond Davis case or a foreign hand.
“I fail to understand why it is being associated with the Davis case. These are our own failings and we should admit it,” said Baloch, a retired army general.
After others gave a range of views about who was behind Bhatti’s murder, Bushra Gohar of the Awami National Party, supported by many members, demanded the formation of a judicial commission to probe the killing.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/127434/strangely-mute- na-fails-to-formally-condemn-murder/
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011 34\story_4-3-2011_pg3_4
Murder most foul —Shahid Saeed
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Pakistan’s Christians have given more to this country than this country has given to them. From Wing Commander Cecil Chaudhry (Sitara-e-Jurat, Tamgha-e-Jurat), who protected the airspace of this country, to Air Vice Marshall Michael John O’Brian, from the melodic Benjamin Sisters to the great human rights and peace activist Julius Salik, from A Nayyar whose melodious rendition of “Utho meri duniya” remains one of the best recitations of Iqbal, to Iqbal Masih, the young boy who broke the shackles of bonded labour and became a global symbol of hope, from Wing Commander Mervyn Middlecoat (Sitara-e-Jurat, Sitara-e-Basalat) to Ruth Pfau, Hilal-e-Pakistan, the legendary woman who has fought leprosy in this country, to Air Commodore W³adys³aw Józef Marian Turowicz — the man who headed SUPARCO in its days of glory and the father of our space and missile programme. The list goes on and includes great men like Bishop Anthony Lobo, Bishop John Joseph, Justice A R Corenlius, Air Vice Marshall Eric Hall (Hilal-i-Jurat, Sitar-e-Jurat), Joseph Francis, the great photo-journalist F E Chaudhary, GoC 23 Div Major General Noel Israel Khokar, and countless others besides the hundreds of great teachers who have, continue to, and will go on to further enlighten students at the historically magnificent missionary and convent schools in this country.
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Rasheed says – “Instruction revealed to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him):
Wa ta’aamulladheena ootul kitaaba hillullakum; Wata’aamukum Hillullahum.
Meaning that the food of the peopl of the Book (Jews and Christians) is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them.
So where does not letting Christians eat Muslims’ food come from? Are these filthy low-life vermin cockroach Mullahs and their followers superior to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam?”
What about Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs? Is their food off limits for Muslims?