THE HINDU
The assassination of Salmaan Taseer by his police bodyguard — which recalls in some way the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 — is a grim reminder of the extent to which Pakistan has descended into the depths of religious extremism. The Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Mr. Taseer was an abrasive and sharp-elbowed politician of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party. Commendably, he was one of the rare leaders in this party of diffident moderates who was unafraid to confront religious extremism. One of his first acts after taking office in May 2008 was to declare that Basant, a spring festival in Punjab opposed by religious clerics and banned by a court order, would be revived. Recently, he angered Pakistan’s Islamic political parties with a spirited campaign against the controversial blasphemy law. His visit to a jail to meet Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted under the law and sentenced to death, and his assurance to her that he would help her obtain a presidential pardon, triggered a nation-wide protest against him by the religious parties. Some clerics declared he was an apostate.
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(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of South Asia Citizens Web)