No one was buying it before. No one is buying it now. The Bishop of Islamabad has called the most recent police statement "absurd."
Briefly, Pakistani authorities had at least seemed to be trying to look busy, but they are simply moving the plot along in their revised version of the circumstances of Shahbaz Bhatti's assassination. To change the official story is to attempt to kill him twice, attempting to bury the public memory of him as having died unjustly for a just cause: defending the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, and demanding justice for the victims of the country's blasphemy laws.
Authorities would like the discussion of both of those issues, and of Bhatti, to go away. "Assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti: new falsehoods from the police," by Jibran Khan for Asia News, September 17:
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – Pakistani police are spreading new falsehoods and new doubts about the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Catholic Minister for Minorities, killed last March 2 by a group of Muslim extremists. Bhatti had long led a fight against the death sentence of Asia Bibi for blasphemy and in defense of religious minorities in his country.
According to the police in Islamabad, the two suspects in the killing, Zia-ur-Rehman and Malik Abid, would be two ex-Christians from Faisalabad, converted to Islam, who allegedly have a property dispute with the Bhatti family. The police have also stated that there is no evidence against them.
This is the second time that police have attempted what is being called a "cover-up". In August, some Pakistani media reported police statements according to which Shahbaz Bhatti would have been killed over "family disputes" related to some property
Later, the Court of Counterterrorism issued an international arrest warrant against Zia-ur-Rehman and Malik Abid, who after the assassination would have fled to Dubai.
In recent days, the two have been transferred to Pakistan, thanks to Interpol. The Senior Superintendent of Police Operations and the head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), however, said that "the suspects are being detained for investigating, they both were allegedly nominated by the Bhatti family, yet it would be too early to comment on their involvement in Bhatti's assassination as there is no evidence available about their involvement. They are being detained on the basis of doubt, things will get clear once they are interrogated."
The statements of the police provoked strong reactions and criticism in the Church of Pakistan. Mons. Rufin Anthony, Bishop of Islamabad and a personal friend of Shahbaz Bhatti told AsiaNews that "the statement by the police is totally absurd."
"If they are not sure about the involvement of the suspects", he added, "then what are they suspecting them for? Why did the court issue the warrants if the JIT didn't have any evidence about their involvement?"
For the bishop, there is a suspicion that "the police are defending the culprits, or diverting the direction of the case, arresting some so-called suspects and then gets them released, on the basis of the non-availability of solid evidence for their involvement”. "It is clear", he continued, "that if there is no evidence against the two suspects, they will be released by the court."
To Mons. Anthony, it is urgent to set up a serious inquiry committee. "It is about time that the concerned authorities start taking things seriously: as Shahbaz Bhatti's assassination is not only the assassination of a Federal Minister, it is the assassination of the voice of the voiceless. They have silenced a man, but can never silence his vision, his thoughts and his struggle for the marginalized".
The prelate's opinion is also shared by Muslim personalities. An academic Muslim cleric, Maulana Mahfooz Khan, also comments on the police statements: "They are just to divert the direction of the case. How can a vehicle [that of the murderers] disappear from the Federal Capital, where there are security checkpoints on all the entry and exits? Every citizen is stopped and questioned at every security checkpoint, how can a vehicle filled with armed men escape un-noticed by the authorities?"
Mahfooz Khan agrees that a new judicial commission is urgent. "The Government", he adds, "seems reluctant in taking interest in the assassination of their own Federal Minister, who was slain in broad daylight in Islamabad."
"Shahbaz Bhatti", he concludes, "fought for the rights of minorities; his struggle for the interfaith harmony is remarkable."
Powerful statement. The Western progressives enculturation and protection of the islamic ideology is the assassination of human rights and the rule of law which will end with the last voice of the voiceless gone.
No surprize here. The U.S. has been sending money to people that don't neccessarily like us and are not our friends for decades.
The problem is our legislators don't know the first thing about the ideology of any of these people. So it doesn't help our positive effort at all. In fact it hurts it. Imagine sending money to Hiters SS during world war two with the idea that the SS would become our friends against Hitler.
The ideology of Islam is clear to everyone except our legislators, courts, and Department of Defense. All you have to do is pick up any news paper and read it for yourself. The radical Muslims have been telling us for 5 decades exactly what they intend to do. And yet we continue sending them billions of dollars to try to appease them. There is a word for that its called treason.
The leaders of this nation must stop appeasing the enemy of this nation. Anything less is one step forward and two steps backwards regarding homeland security.
Hello.... there are radical Muslims working in high places in this country. Of course they didn't announce that they are the enemy. They want to win are trust and move us away from the truth. Used car dealers have been hidding the truth for 100 years now. In Islams case its called taqiyya and they use it as a key to open thousands of doors throughout the world for their cause.
The truth is not found in Islam take that to heart. Islam has not kept so much as one agreemment or promise yet. "Beware of gift burying and kind talking strangers". The heart and soul of Islam is to conqure the world by "any means" neccessary because Allah has told them to.
Would someone please inform our legislators so they will be removed from ignorance. Because as things stand today most legislators are commiting treason by helping and appeasing the enemies of the United States. Ignorance shouldn't be an excuse at this late date.
Speak against Islam, get murdered in coldblooded and cowardly fashion, have the entire society applaud the murderer: the Islamic way. If the "majority" of Muslims are serious that this type of thing doesn't "represent" them, they are doing a p***poor job demonstrating otherwise.
Islam at its' fantical height. In Pakistan the government, the police and the people are chained and terrorized by the violent ideologies that can be found in the teachings of Islam that make many of it's adherants, terrorist. Worse yet, as the violent aspect of the ideologies taught in Islam makes Muslim kill a fellow countryman just because he chooses a different religion and many innocent Muslims have been killed as well. Terrorism in the name of Islam, a rabid ideology indeed at this heightened fringe. A reform of the ideology is much needed, but at the rabid state much blood would be spilled.