KHUSHPUR/ISLAMABAD – Shouting ‘death for killers’, thousands of people on Friday buried the country’s only Christian government minister who was killed for seeking a review of the country’s blasphemy laws. Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, an outspoken campaigner against the blasphemy law, died in a hail of bullets as he left his mother’s home in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday.
Wailing women in his ancestral mainly Christian village Khushpur, 290km south of Islamabad in Faisalabad, beat their chests and demanded ‘Hang the killers’. Marchers at a rally bore black flags aloft and wore black armbands, chanting ‘Bhatti’s blood will bring revolution.’ Earlier, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and cabinet members attended a funeral mass for the Catholic politician at Islamabad’s Fatima Church, guarded by blanket security including police marksmen.
Later, Bhatti’s coffin was flown by helicopter to Khushpur for burial. It was draped in the national flag – which is predominately green, representing Islam, with a white stripe for the country’s minorities. “The message of Shahbaz Bhatti is to purge Pakistan of killers and hatred,” Reverend Father Emmanuel Pervez told around 5,000 men, women and children who thronged the village cemetery for the burial.
“We will not accept oppression … Bhatti’s message is that we should not let Pakistan be defamed.” Bhatti had defied death threats, conceding to AFP in January that he was the highest target right now after the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, who wanted to reform the blasphemy legislation. “People are very sad here, it is a brutal act. People struggling for their rights demand justice,” college professor Jacob Paul told AFP.
Nazir Ahmed, a 70-year-old Muslim farmer in Khushpur, said, “Bhatti was a friend of Muslims also. We equally share the grief of Christians.” “Bhatti has been killed for speaking up for Aasia Bibi,” housewife Robina Robert said. “These terrorists must be hanged publicly to stop them from committing such brutal crimes,” Hina Gill, a member of the Christian Minority Alliance said.
“These terrorists are wearing the mask of religion to defame religion. “Shahbaz Bhatti has tried hard to promote interfaith harmony but those who want to destabilise Pakistan have killed him,” Badruddin Chaudhry, a Muslim attending the funeral, told Reuters.
