Blasphemy and the Governor of Punjab

On 4 January 2011, millionaire businessman and governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer was shot to death. He had been leading a campaign to amend Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, after an illiterate Christian woman was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Within hours, a Facebook page for the assassin Mumtaz Qadri had over 2000 members. Transferred to jail, Qadri was garlanded with roses by lawyers offering to take his case for free. President Asif Ali Zardari, a friend of Taseer's, didn't go to the funeral for fear of inflaming public opinion. Mosque leaders refused to say funeral prayers for Taseer, and the Interior Minister gave a press conference announcing that he too would kill a blasphemer "with his own hands". Presenter Owen Bennett-Jones has interviewed Taseer's family and friends and the family of the assassin, and secured access to court documents including the killer's confession.