Punjabi Taliban, al Qaeda assassinate Pakistan's Christian minorities minister
(LWJ)- The Punjabi Taliban and al Qaeda assassinated Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs in a shooting today in Islamabad, calling him a “blasphemer.”
Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was gunned down as he was leaving his mother’s home in the capital. At the time of his death, Bhatti was setting out for a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad. Bhatti’s driver was also seriously wounded in the attack.
“The attackers were wearing shawls and opened indiscriminate fire as they got close to the minister’s car,” Wajid Durrani, Islamabad’s chief of police, told reporters at a press conference.
Al Qaeda and the Punjabi Taliban left pamphlets left at the scene of Bhatti’s murder to claim responsibility for the assassination. The terror groups claimed that Bhatti, an “infidel Christian,” was in charge of a secretive committee assigned to repeal Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, The Associated Press reported. Al Qaeda and the Punjabi Taliban also threatened further assassinations against unspecified targets.
“With the blessing of Allah, the mujahedeen will send each of you to hell,” the pamphlet read.
Two Taliban spokesmen also claimed credit for the assassination, and compared him to Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province who was assassinated in January by his bodyguard for opposing Pakistan’s repressive blasphemy laws, which allow those perceived to have slighted Islam to be put to death.
“He was a blasphemer like Salman Taseer,” a spokesman known as Sajjad Mohmand told Reuters.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/03/taliban_assassinates.phpAhh, just smell that Islamic tolerance! Cue someone to tell us how tolerant and accepting Islam is of other faiths!