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.
Very sad indeed. He was a very brave man.
Mr. Bhatti should be posthumously awarded the highest honors for bravery in Pakistan — he knew the dangers, and what was coming his way. That didn’t stop him from preaching tolerance and respect for justice.
Pakistan is losing all the good and brave ones. All who will be left in the end will either be poor with no means of escape or the ones who rightly deserve culling.
Adil,
when you started this blog, did you in your wildest imagination think that you will be writing this many obituaries?
Sad.
CHICKENS ARE COMING HOME TO ROOST.
From Dawn News Media Gallery:
“Almost 100 people, including the famous writer H.M Naqvi and Human Rights Minister Nadia Gabol, gathered chanting, “This is terrorism, not Islam,” holding signs that stated, “Murderers are not Muslims,” ……..”
NOW THERE ARE MORE KAFIRS…..WELCOME TO THE CLUB OF “KAFIRS”
MURDERERS OF SHAHBAZ BHATTI ARE DECLARED “KAFIR” BY OTHER PAKISTANI MUSLIMS…..
I wonder where were writer H.M Naqvi and Human Rights Minister Nadia Gabol, when their beloved hero Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto declared me Kafir in Pakistani Supreme Law book??????
Heheheheheheheh……..
Personal Disclosure:
I hold belief that:
1-There is no God but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAWS) WAS HIS LAST AND GREATEST PROPHET.
2-No new or old prophet can come after Rasul Allah SAWS.
3-I consider all reciters of Kalima-Shahada as Muslims.
4-I do NOT belong to Qadiani organization headed by their Khalifa residing in England, that holds belief that thousands of prophets can come after Rasul Allah SAWS (nauzubilah), but they will only come in their Qadiani organization.
Adil, you are right. We should all be ashamed at what we have bred around us; especially those of us who have had the privilege of a good education. We are now definitively, a society that is rotten to the core; we have collectively ceded the last bit of moral ground. We are a country where the most wealthy crook is the president, where religious fanatics are not answerable to anyone, where industrialists evade taxes, and where feudal lords abuse peasants.
However, these problems are acknowledged by every Pakistani citizen. What is not acknowledged nearly enough, is the most dangerous group in Pakistan, the military. What has this military done? It has usurped power, waged unprovoked war on its neighbors, hanged a democratically elected leader, excised the most populous province by unleashing genocide on the people it was supposedly protecting, created sham governments only to collapse them later, etc etc. Worst of all, this military sowed the seeds of radicalism, extremism, and terrorism.
It is narrated that once the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was resting under a tree and fell asleep. Upon waking up, he found an enemy standing by him with a drawn sword , who asked the Prophet (PBUH): Who will save you from me now [as if in a “gotcha” moment].
He (PBUH) calmly replied: My Allah, a reply that dumbfounded the enemy, who began to shake after seeing such confidence and quickness of mind to the extent that in his nervousness he dropped his sword, which Muhammad (PBUH) quickly picked up and asked his attacker: Who will save YOU now from me?
The nervous attacker foolishly said: only you can save me, to which the Prophet (PBUH) told him how foolish he was to not seek shelter with Allah even after an example shown to him right there. He was let go unharmed, but the overwhelmed attacker accepted Islam.
Compare that kindness with todays brutality by hell-bound wolves in sheep’s clothing, who claim to be followers of the greatest man ever.