ISLAMABAD – The assassination of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer is yet another high profile murder since terrorism started to engulf the country in 2005. The list, which carries around a dozen incidents, starts with the name of former PPP chairwoman and two-time premier Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a terrorist attack on December 27, 2007, outside Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, after addressing a public gathering.
Her killers are still at large and former chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Baitullah Mehsud is generally blamed.
14 Jul, 2005: Allama Hassan Turabi, a Shiite religious scholar and chief of Tehrik-e-Jafaria Pakistan, and his 12-year-old nephew were killed in a suicide attack near his Abbas Town residence at Karachi. The suicide bomber was later identified as Abdul Karim, a Bangali-speaking, resident of a shantytown in the central city area of Karachi.
26 Aug, 2005: Tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in a battle between tribal militants and government forces in Balochistan. At least 5 soldiers and 30 rebels died also.
27 Jan, 2006: At least 13 people, including the Chief of Peshawar City Police Malik Saad, were killed in a suicide bomb attack near a crowded Shiite mosque in Peshawar.
20 Feb, 2006: Punjab Minister for social welfare Zil-e-Huma Usman was shot and killed in Gujranwala. Her assassin, Mohammed Sarwar, was reported to have been motivated by her refusal to abide by the Islamic code of dress and a dislike for the involvement of women in political affairs.
15 Sep, 2006: Assailants shot dead Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Hassan Jan in the jurisdiction of Yakatoot police station in Peshawar. Hassan, a former MNA, had issued a fatwa against suicide attacks.
25 Feb, 2008: Pakistan Army’s top medic Mushtaq Baig was killed, along with his driver and security guard, when a suicide attack ripped apart the vehicle he was travelling in near Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. He was the highest-ranking officer to be killed since the 9/11 attacks.
19 Nov 2008: A former head of the army’s elite commando force Special Service Group Major General (R) Ameer Faisal Alvi and his driver were gunned down near Islamabad. Alvi commanded the SSG during the first major assault on militants in Angoor Ada in South Waziristan in 2004.
11 Feb, 2009: Awami National Party (ANP) provincial lawmaker Alam Zeb Khan was killed and eight people injured in a remote-controlled blast.
3 Mar 2009: A convoy carrying Sri Lankan cricketers and officials in two buses was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
12 June, 2009: A leading Sunni Barelvi cleric with anti-Taliban views, Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi, was assassinated, with six other people killed and five injured when a suicide attacker detonated himself at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa on the Allama Iqbal Road in Garhi Shahu area of Lahore shortly after Friday prayers.
14 Jul, 2010: Gunmen assassinated a former senator and nationalist leader for the Balochistan National Party, Habib Jalib, in Quetta.
13th high-profile murders since 2005
