On October 7, the High Court in Pakistan upheld the death sentence for Mumtaz Qadri, the former bodyguard of Salman Taseer who he killed in Islamabad in January 2011.
Qadri said he killed Taseer over the governor’s outspoken opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and his public support for Aasiya Noreen (Asia Bibi), the Christian mother of five wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for blasphemy.
This decision is being seen by some human rights advocates as a signal of the government’s resolve against Islamic extremism. Rufus Solomon, a Christian politician from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said: ‘The Supreme Court decision is a very strong sign that the State is trying to recover the space it ceded to violent extremists. I have a strong feeling that Asia Bibi and all other innocent Christians who have been subjected to the blasphemy laws will be freed by the Supreme Court.’
