Zilla Huma Usman was apparently not Mohammad Sarwar's first victim. An update on this story. "Pak minister a victim of Islamist 'serial killer'," from AFP:
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani investigators are probing whether a “serial killer” cleric who assassinated a female minister this week — having previously confessed to four other murders — had links to Islamist groups.
In a case that shocked even this unstable Islamic republic, extremist Mohammad Sarwar shot Punjab province social welfare minister Zilla Huma Usman in the head at a public meeting in central Gujranwala city on Tuesday.
Police have said that Sarwar objected to the involvement of women in politics and disapproved of the clothes worn by Usman, a supporter of the moderate and pro-US President Pervez Musharraf.
“I killed her out of conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic life and spreading an evil influence on other women,” he told interrogators, according to a police source.
Police say that in 2003 Sarwar had escaped justice despite publicly admitting that he had killed four prostitutes and injured another four as they waited by roadsides for clients.
“He is a serial killer,” said Saud Aziz, the police chief of Gujranwala at the time of the earlier shootings.
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat hit out at the Pakistani justice system, saying “fanatic” Sarwar was still on the streets mainly due to “defective police investigation and poor quality of the prosecution.”
“We are investigating and there is a possibility that he may have support from some religious group,” he said, without elaborating or naming the organisation.
Pakistan has dozens of Islamic militant outfits, most of which have been banned by Musharraf.
The prostitute murders — three in conservative Gujranwala and one in the eastern city of Lahore between September 2002 and January 2003 -- puzzled police and caused a public outcry.
Former police inspector Mohammad Naveed finally arrested Sarwar in early 2003 on the basis of information from local religious leaders and witness reports that a cleric was spotted near the scene of the killings.
He said Sarwar’s usual method of attack was to fire two or three bullets just above the crotch of his victims. One woman who survived was paralysed.
“In no time after his arrest (in 2003) he confessed to the murders and provided all the details,” Naveed said. “He was produced before the media and he made a confessional statement.”
Yet the case collapsed during the trial. Police said the victims’ families took compensation money raised by religious leaders instead of testifying because of the shame of their daughters’ “immoral” profession.
A rickshaw driver who used to drive the prostitutes around initially told police he saw Sarwar shooting one of the women, “but backed down, apparently under pressure from local clergy in Gujranwala who supported Sarwar.”
Eventually Sarwar — a father of nine who had been educated at a madrassa or Islamic seminary in Gujranwala and later taught local children the Koran — withdrew his confession.
His lawyer, Liaqat Sindhu, said he “knew that Sarwar was guilty of the killings” but that he was acquitted because there was no firm evidence and the case was mishandled.
Psychiatric tests on Sarwar in 2003 showed that he was “not deranged”, said Saud Aziz, who is now police chief of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
“He said he killed the girls after he got divine revelations,” he said.
Four years later, the murder of Zilla Huma Usman shows how extremism has corrupted Pakistani society, said Iqbal Haider, secretary general of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
“There is no writ of the government, which results in barbaric tragedies like this,” said Haider, a former law minister under Benazir Bhutto, the country’s first female prime minister.
“Our prosecution and our administration is shamelessly incompetent, corrupt and religiously biased.”
"“We are investigating and there is a possibility that he may have support from some religious group,”
.....no doubt ... a Muslim religious group...
...after making the statement:
“I killed her out of conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic life and spreading an evil influence on other women,”
....it removes all my doubt.....
Oh and :“Our prosecution and our administration is shamelessly incompetent, corrupt and religiously biased.”
......not to mention unable to effectively contol or enforce basic civil law and order....
.....which bring our own government to mind...
exsgtbrown-
You nailed it on the last thread for this topic. This guy is an Islamic hero. If he had lived in Muhammeds time, he would've been lifted up as an example of devout loyalty to the mad prophet.
If Pakistan doesn't want him, I'm sure there are plenty of student visas still available to bring him to America!
-XRDC
Judge,jury,amd executioner; we don't even need a sharia court to practice jurisprudence.
How long before he is acquitted for "lack of evidence". Pakistani courts always do that.
"What does this have to do with Islam?" We should wait till "all the facts are in" to "pass judgment." Maybe this guy is just "mentally ill?" Maybe he had a "troubled adolescence." For Marisol to even post such an article before "all the facts are in" is "irresponsible". "Don't blame Islam for the actions of individual Muslims." Maybe he was angry about the "plight of the Palestinians" or the treatment of Albanian Kosovars by the Serbs.
Did I miss any worn out apologetic rationalizations?
Abu Allah-
I would keep your head low if I were you. The obvious comes fast and without warning.
-XRDC
""What does this have to do with Islam?"
....The Man was following life's guidelines as outlined by the Islamic teachings....no other religion objects so violently to the modest business attire worn by civilized women of the world...Not the Jews,Hindus,Sihks,Protestants,Catholics,MOrmons, not the Methodists,Buddists nor the Seventh Day Aventists.......only Islam....
.......Islam kills........
"Islamist serial killer" is that a Urdu translation for 'disciple of Mohammed'.
Mohammed was the world's most succesful sociopath.
“Our prosecution and our administration is shamelessly incompetent, corrupt and religiously biased.”
This is the inevitable result of power being concentrated into the hands of the 'divinely appointed' or 'chosen few'.
Pakistan and indeed all Islamic tyrannies and theocracies are exactly what the founding fathers of the United States rebelled against.
Another Mohammed?, I am shocked.
“Our prosecution and our administration is shamelessly incompetent, corrupt and religiously biased.”
Indeed. Religiously biased in favor of the ideology of failure....Islam.
We really may have to start thinking of partitioning up our Western countries among those who want to live with islam and those who have seen enough. Something has got to give. I just had a look at some very looney-left German websites and I tell ya.. we were MUCH better off with the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain!!
Whenever the leftyloons got too crazy I used to point east and say: "look.. there's a whole country over there where you will be very happy indeed.."
It shut them up!
NOW the hardcore commies are all over Germany and we are a HUGE liberal mess!
Americans should look at Germany France Holland, Britain and Belgium REAL close!!
Read about the daily violence in all our capital cities.. the daily harassments we endure.. the persecution we face when we fight back!
Does this guy face torture in Paki-land now?
If so the lefty-goodpeople will soon clamor to have him brought to some hapless country in the West!!
no matter how dangerous this is for the NATIVE populations!
Just so long that this murderer won't have to face a death sentence and/or torture in hos own land!
We are the NANNIES of the world!! //sarc off
God, I despise liberals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The police are very much on his side. Nothing will be done. Hey, that's the so-called land of the pure (Meanwhile the family of Begum Usman grieves...
" . . . she was leading an un-Islamic life . . . "
Gimme an "un-Islamic life" every time. Being dead is preferable to an "Islamic life."
But
Making enemies dead is preferable to being dead oneself.
We still have that choice.
That unfortunate woman didn't.
This does not surprise me at all. The hypocracy does though. My niece lives in Kent (just south of London) and owns a shop in the Borough. According to her and police reports, the Pakistani men in London are at the top of the list of sexual predators in London.
Any old excuse will do. Not dressed properly, watching movies, smoking, among many.
Has JW hired a moderator?
“He said he killed the girls after he got divine revelations,”
Shades of Mohammad...
So there is prostitution and customers of prostitutes in Pakistan...instead of 'John's' we can call them 'Abu's'. What happened to all that Islamic purity they keep telling us about. How could it be that a bastion of Islam, Pakistan, could sink to such decadadence. Prostitute's, Abu's, serial killer's? Whats next, apostate's? Pakistan is a crumbling ruin of morality...where is Naseem? She needs to explain this...
"Islamist serial killer" is redundant.
'“I killed her out of conviction that she was leading an un-Islamic life and spreading an evil influence on other women,” he told interrogators, according to a police source.'
What I want to know is did he screw her before he killed her, you know, so she couldn't go to heaven? Or maybe because he couldn't get a date.
It seems, Isabella, that raping women (in practice, usually little girls) so they cannot go to Paradise seems to be an Iranian theological innovation. No other ideology reduces women -- humans -- simply to the state of their genitalia. It is so disgusting and inhuman it is almost unspeakable.
Simply raping women because they are available, however, is common Islamic methodology across the board.
Our leaders believe there is hope for Iran because "the street" there now complains about the price of tomatoes; they believe there is hope for Pakistan because of taqqiya mouthing against terrorism. In the meantime, women are constantly, relentlessly killed in various hideous ways in both places, all for Allah; little boys are raped in the alleys of Pakistan, little girls thighed and sodomized by their fathers with the imam's blessing, goats and dogs are penetrated by mighty Muslim warriors lacking other tormentable outlets there and in every other Muslim paradise.
And on Salon and other media outlets, craven, monster Muslimahs are approvingly featured as they swan through Western societies crowing about their love of Islam. All the dead girls and raped boys mean nothing to them as they feed like the pigs they loathe on every pleasure Western society has to offer.
Marwan'sDaughter:
You are exactly right. I have seen this for my self in Morocco, where little kids are sold, or should I say ‘rented’, to Saudi perverts. It is a common practice in Marrakech at the Sheraton Hotel there.
But we must not lose sight of the goal. For us in the west we need to promote this and not condemn it, this should be nurtured by the west, not poked fun at. (pun intended).
And that goes for the killing of the women and children there as well, we need to mind our own business in this matter. We need to keep focused on our goal and never be distracted by any of the Humanitarian nonsense.
You're right QuadoLama
And as for women and children getting killed, terrorists hide behind them anyway just so they can point the finger at our soldiers. We have to harden our hearts because the terrorists are purposely trapping us. Meanwhile they can attack our cities with no qualms whatsoever.
You guys, I can't harden my heart to this. It's much worse than we ever thought. Read Hirsi Ali's book, "Infidel" and you will cry your eyes out. Here is a funny, warm, beautiful woman who has had more than her fair share of troubles, yet her spirit and will are fiercely determined and resilient. She has a very hard head and even though I'm only half way through the book I have the utmost respect for her. The sexual depravity that she has witnessed and experienced is horrifying.
There is a paragraph in Hirsi's book that haunts me, when she describes the effect of the genital mutilation on her little sister, Haweya, that took place when the girl was five years old. "Haweya was never the same after that...She had horrible nightmares, and during the day began stomping off to be alone. My once cheerful, playful little sister changed. Sometimes she just stared vacantly at nothing for hours."
Dear God in heaven, how can this exist on the same earth that rotates around it's axis in 24 hours, so at least once a day I breathe the same air that these people did just a few hours ago? There has to be an answer, somewhere, somehow. I pray to God for it.