GENEVA – The government on Thursday called on other countries not to link Wednesday’s killing of its only Christian government minister, Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, to the wider issue of blasphemy. Bhatti, who had called for changes to the blasphemy laws, was shot in broad daylight in Islamabad.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan said they had assassinated him as a punishment for blasphemy. “We believe it would not be helpful to link the highly regrettable killing squarely in the context of defamation (of religion) and blasphemy,” Pakistani delegate Asim Ahmad said in a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
