Pakistan's blasphemy laws criticized by AI

PUNJAB, Pakistan, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Punjab Gov. Salmaan Taseer, a harsh critic of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

Taseer had campaigned for Asia Bibi, a Christian farmer from rural Punjab who was sentenced to death for blasphemy in November 2009 as the result of what Amnesty International called a highly flawed investigation in a statement released Wednesday.

Taseer was shot Jan. 4, 2011, by one of his security guards. Constable Mumtaz Qadri confessed to the killing, alleging he did so because the governor criticized the laws.

"Salmaan Taseer was killed in cold blood because he supported a defenseless victim of Pakistan's blasphemy laws," Amnesty International's Asia Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, said.

In 2009 and 2010, the Pakistani government vowed to review "laws detrimental to religious harmony," and was further urged to do so in 2010 by the Council of Islamic Ideology. However, further progress has yet to be seen.

"These dangerous developments demonstrate that the blasphemy laws, as they currently operate, are a risk to all Pakistanis because they send the signal that anyone can commit violence and justify it as a defense of religion," Zarifi said. "Yet most of the individuals accused of blasphemy are mainstream Muslims."