RAWALPINDI – The police commando charged with killing governor, who had urged reform of a blasphemy law, asked to be one of his bodyguards, a witness told.
Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri has been charged with terrorism and murdering Punjab governor Salman Taseer on an Islamabad street on January 4.
Qadri has confessed to killing Taseer, saying that he objected to the politician’s calls to amend the blasphemy law.
“Three prosecution witnesses, all policemen, made their statements today in the court,” Shuja-ur-Rehman, one of Qadri’s lawyers, told AFP outside the prison.
“One of the witnesses, a police constable, told the court that Qadri had asked to be assigned duty with the governor,” Rehman said, adding that the court adjourned the hearing until April 2.
The hearing was held behind closed doors at the high-security Adiyala prison, in Rawalpindi, making prosecution lawyers and witnesses statements inaccessible to reporters who have to rely on what defence lawyers say.
Leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party have asked why Qadri was deployed to Taseer despite being declared a “security risk” by a senior police official nearly two years ago.
Around 150 people rallied outside the prison where the hearing took place, chanting slogans in support of Qadri.
The killing of Taseer was the most high-profile political assassination in Pakistan since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.
Earlier this month, unknown attackers shot dead Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s minority affairs minister who was also a vocal opponent of the blasphemy law.
While no-one has ever been sent to the gallows under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, activists say it is used to attack others out of personal enmity or business disputes.
