Salman Tasser Shot by Bodyguard for Supporting Blasphemy Laws

International News: Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by his bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, who surrendered and confessed that the reason for the assassination was Taseer’s vocal opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws. The draconian blasphemy laws of Pakistan were recently used to punish a Christian woman with death sentence.

The assassination turned Qadri into a hero, as 2,000 Facebook users formed a group to praise the killer. Several ‘fans’ joined the pages that were set up to support Qadri within hours of the assassination.

Analysts claim that Taseer’s assassination highlights the deep religious extremism in the country’s conservative society, so much so that even the Internet-literate resorted to Facebook to exhibit support for the assassin.