On the third anniversary of the assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer, civil society members, his family and activists urged the government to punish his killer.
At Kohsar market where Taseer's bodyguard Malik Mumtaz Qadri shot 27 bullets into him, friends, family and civil society members lit candles and prayed for him to commemorate that day. His son Shaan told The Hindu he still hoped that justice would be done though it would be wrong to infer that nothing had been done so far. Qadri was sentenced to death by the anti terrorism court in October 2011 and is in jail.
Shaan said the woman whom his father spoke up for, Aasiya Bibi, was still in jail for blasphemy and no lawyer was willing to appear for her. He said that everyone including civil society and the media had to work for political change.
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Speaking on the occasion, his friends said that Taseer was not dead and he would always remain alive for his ideals and his courage of conviction. Lawyer Faisal Hussain said that the country had lost a powerful voice three years ago and his killer was yet to be punished.
Activist Rehana Hashmi of Sisters Trust said that when Pakistan was formed minorities constituted 25 per cent but now that was reduced to five percent. People who spread anarchy must be punished and if this was done more people would not fall victims of sectarian hatred, she said. Two weeks after Taseer was shot dead, another man who spoke against the blasphemy law, Shahzad Bhatti, a Minister in the federal cabinet was killed in the capital. Police claim to have arrested his assailants last year.