Pakistan on alert as governor’s killer is hanged

Protests break out across the nation against the hanging

Mumtaz Qadri, a former Pakistani Elite Force commando, convicted for killing Punjab province governor Salman Taseer, was executed at the Adiala Jail Monday, triggering protests by his supporters.

Security was stepped up at flashpoints across the country, including the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where hundreds of Qadri supporters began gathering at his family home. Qadri had shot Taseer dead in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, 2011 for speaking out against misuse of blasphemy laws.

An anti-terrorism court had convicted and condemned Qadri to death — a ruling also upheld by the Islamabad high court and Supreme Court. A review petition of Qadri was also turned down by the top court on December 14 leaving him with the last option of filing a clemency appeal to the President. That too was rejected.

Qadri’s body was sent to his native town of Sadiqabad, near Rawalpindi, where funeral prayers will be offered on Tuesday. Rangers and police in riot gear as well as ambulances and dozens of police vehicles were stationed in Sadiqabad.

Following Qadri’s execution, the Pakistan authorities put the police and Rangers on “high alert”, stepped up security and braced for protests. The protests were reported in different cities, including Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The protesters gathered on main road at Faizabad Interchange, outside Rawalpindi, burning tyres on the thoroughfare and chanting slogans against the government. The authorities also closed down schools in Rawalpindi.

Qadri’s brother Abid said the family had been called to the prison Sunday evening by officials who said he was unwell. However, when they arrived, he greeted them with the news that the authorities had deceived them, and his execution was imminent. “We started crying, but he hugged us and chanted, ‘God is great,” Abid Qadri said. “I am proud of the martyrdom of my son,” Qadri’s father Bashir Awan said, adding he was ready to sacrifice all five of his other sons “for the honour of the Prophet”.

Taseer’s son Shehryar said on Twitter the hanging was a victory for Pakistan, but not his family. “The safe return of my brother is the only victory my family wants,” he wrote, referring to his sibling Shahbaz Taseer, who was abducted in 2011 — reportedly by the Taliban — despite being given a police escort after his father’s murder. Twitter users praised the execution, with some hailing it as “justice served”.

The head of the Islamabad Bar Council called for a day-long strike of lawyers in protest against the hanging. Qadri’s attorney said his client told him he had no regrets for killing the governor. “I have met him twice in jail. He said that even if Allah gave him 50 million lives, he would still sacrifice all of them,” lawyer Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry said. Mosques near Qadri’s family home in Rawalpindi broadcast the news, with cries heard from inside the house as hundreds of mourners arrived.

Qadri’s lawyers drew on Islamic texts to argue that he was justified in killing Taseer, saying that by criticising the law the politician was himself guilty of blasphemy — an argument rejected by the lead judge.

The protesters briefly blocked the main road between Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Monday.