• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Pakistan: Suspects in murder of Christian politician who opposed blasphemy law could go free due to jihad threats

Feb 18, 2014 4:32 pm By Robert Spencer

Shahbaz-Bhatti-assassinat-007How can the murderers of Shahbaz Bhatti be punished when so many people in Pakistan sympathize more with them than with their victim, and believe that the Christians who have been hounded and persecuted under that country’s blasphemy laws had it coming and deserved what they got?

More on this story. “Islamic Extremist Threats in Pakistan Could Quash Prosecution of Bhatti Murder,” by Jeremy Reynalds for ASSIST News Service, February 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Suspects in the murder of Pakistan’s first Christian cabinet minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, could walk free due to intimidation tactics by Islamic extremists, Christians fear.

According to a story by Morning Star News, the suspects have confessed, according to Dr. Paul Bhatti, brother of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was gunned down on March 2 2011.

However, prosecution will be difficult after death threats from Islamic extremists forced Paul Bhatti to flee the country, and banned extremist groups are demanding the release of the suspects for progress in talks with government officials.

Paul Bhatti took responsibility for becoming the complainant in the case when the government’s prosecution slowed to a standstill, but he has left the country due to threats on his life by the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorist organizations.

“I’ve been constantly threatened to withdraw the case, and just recently I received a letter from the Pakistani Taliban and LeJ warning me to stop pursuing the case, or else they will kill me,” Bhatti told Morning Star News by phone from Italy.

He added, “I informed the government and other concerned quarters about these threats, but I’m yet to hear something from their side.”

Bhatti has not given up on prosecuting, but Sub-Inspector Riaz Gondal, the investigating officer in the case, admitted that the suspects and their handlers did pose a serious threat to the murder victim’s brother.

“Indeed it is a serious matter – perhaps this is why they hadn’t been pursuing the case,” he said, noting that Bhatti’s absence from hearings and reduced contact with investigators would impair prosecution. “We did our job and arrested the accused. It’s now up to the court to punish them. But if the complainant does not show up at the hearings, there’s little hope for the killers to be convicted.”

Bhatti said that the public prosecutor assigned by the Punjab government had refused to pursue the murder case in the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court.

“I then hired a lawyer on my own, although it was the responsibility of the Punjab government,” he said.

Asked why the government was not the complainant in the murder case of its cabinet minister instead of the victim’s brother, especially with the case carrying such high risks, Gondal said, “I was assigned the investigation some months ago, so I can’t really say why Shahbaz Bhatti’s brother became the complainant in the case. As for the government’s role in this matter, the police are doing their job, and arrests of the accused are a testimony of their efforts.”

Morning Star News said Gondal denied receiving any information regarding the threats to Paul Bhatti.

Prisoner Release

Complicating the case is the possibility that the suspects could be released as part of an agreement for government talks with banned Muslim extremists groups.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has reportedly demanded the release of Bhatti’s alleged assassins along with other imprisoned terrorists as a pre-condition for progress in “peace talks” with the government.

Bhatti said that it was the government’s responsibility to keep the murderers of a sitting cabinet minister from walking free.

“The men themselves confessed to killing my brother,” Morning Star News reported he said. “I’m certain that they are the real culprits, because the Taliban are demanding their release. It would be very unjust if the government submits to the Taliban demand.”

Almost three years have passed since Bhatti’s murder, but the trial has barely begun. Islamabad police believe the latest threatening letters were sent to pressure Bhatti following the arrest of four Islamic extremists accused of killing his brother – Omar Abdullah, Hammad Adil, Abdul Sattar and one identified only as Tanveer, who all belong to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

Adil had already been detained for planning attacks on key installations in Islamabad; a vehicle laden with 120 kilograms of explosives was recovered from his residence.

Adil and Abdullah reportedly confessed to killing Bhatti and named the two accomplices, who were detained shortly afterwards.

In June 2011, then-Islamabad Senior Superintendent of Police Tahir Alam submitted a joint investigation report to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Minorities saying that police had decided to shelve the Bhatti murder case as investigators could not find any leads.

The case was reopened on Sept. 30, 2013, at the request of Capital Police, and a joint investigation team was formed following the arrest of Adil.

Gondal, the investigator and officer in charge of the Sabzi Mandi Police Station, said police have filed charge sheets against Adil and Abdullah and sent them to jail on judicial remand. The other two suspects will also be formally charged soon, he added.

Gondal said he could not comment on chances of the suspects walking free as a result of a deal between the government and Taliban.
“I can’t comment on this issue, because it’s for the government to decide,” he said. “But I hope they know how dangerous these men are.”

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is holding “peace talks” with the Taliban. Among the preconditions set by the terrorists for a “meaningful outcome of the talks” is the release of Pakistani and foreign terrorists languishing in Pakistani jails.

Most political analysts believe that the government might release some Taliban prisoners as a confidence-building measure with the Taliban.

Prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir said that if the government caved in to the Taliban demand and released all terrorists affiliated with the group, then it might as well set free all other prisoners languishing in jails across the country.

“The Taliban have killed thousands of innocent people and members of security forces in the last seven years,” Jahangir said. “How can the government even think of negotiating with such barbarians? The government must not accept the Taliban’s demand for release of hard-core militants, as the peace talks may turn out to be a Taliban ploy to get their friends released from prisons.”

An Interior Ministry senior official refused to comment on the eventuality of any person involved in Bhatti’s murder being released as part of a deal between the government and terrorists.

“The government has not taken any such decision as yet, but the final authority rests with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,” he said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to media, he told Morning Star News that officials had received Paul Bhatti’s application for provision of security due to Taliban threats to him.

“We are looking into the matter,” the official said. “Almost every other important person is facing high risk, but it is not possible for us to provide extensive security cover to everyone given our limited resources.”

Lack of progress in the case at one time led Bhatti to lose hope that the killers would ever be brought to justice, said the former minister for national harmony and minority affairs, appointed to replace his brother.

“However, when the police announced that they had the assassins in its custody and shared the investigation details with us, I thought that perhaps my brother’s killers would be punished for their crime,” he said. “But there has been little progress over all.”

Morning Star News said he doesn’t plan to remain in Italy.

“I know we are potential targets, but we will not give up,” he said. “Those threatening us are the same people who are responsible for the murders of my brother and countless other innocent people in Pakistan.”

He said that after the murder of his brother, he left his medical practice in Italy and returned to Pakistan to continue Shahbaz’s mission. He was selected as chairman of his brother’s party, the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, and was accommodated in the federal cabinet in place of the late minister.

Since the Pakistan Peoples Party lost power last year, however, risks have increased, Bhatti said.

Two months before Shahbaz Bhatti was killed, Punjab Gov. Salmaan Taseer, a Muslim, was assassinated on Jan. 4 2011.

Morning Star News said Al Qaeda-linked militants targeted both men for their criticism of the country’s blasphemy laws and for their defense of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother sentenced to death for allegedly blaspheming Islam’s prophet. She has been waiting for three years to have her appeal heard.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: blasphemy, Jihadist intimidation and thuggery, Pakistan Tagged With: featured


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. mariam rove says

    Feb 18, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    religion of peace never stops. M

  2. RCCA says

    Feb 18, 2014 at 8:03 pm

    Just goes to show how completely out of control and lawless the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is. Imagine if people had assassinated a member of our President’s cabinet and our government was then negotiating with the group responsible to release the murderers? Meanwhile the group keeps murdering people right and left? I can’t even imagine the psychological impact of living under such conditions.

    $1.6 billion dollars in aid resumed to Pakistan and needless to say, we can’t even get them to cooperate in negotiating the release of Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant believed to be held captive by the Taliban

    • Christian A. Beltram says

      Feb 18, 2014 at 8:52 pm

      The closest parallels to this case are acquittals that were given to whites who lynched African Americans in the Old South despite the overwhelming evidence of the guilt of the murders. The persecution of women and religious minorities in the Islamic world is another and an even older form of Jim Crow Laws than the racially-based Jim Crow Laws that existed in the Old South.

  3. Holybacon says

    Feb 18, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    And they do have nukes

  4. gravenimage says

    Feb 19, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    Pakistan: Suspects in murder of Christian politician who opposed blasphemy law could go free due to jihad threats
    ……………………………..

    How can the murderers of Shahbaz Bhatti be punished when so many people in Pakistan sympathize more with them than with their victim, and believe that the Christians who have been hounded and persecuted under that country’s blasphemy laws had it coming and deserved what they got?
    ……………………………..

    Exactly—and Governor Salman Taseer was similarly assassinated for merely suggesting that the Blasphemy law should be reviewed. His assassin has been quite literally showered with rose petals.

    More:

    LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Suspects in the murder of Pakistan’s first Christian cabinet minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, could walk free due to intimidation tactics by Islamic extremists, Christians fear.
    ……………………………..

    That, and the fact that so many in the government—not just the populace—are in sympathy with the assassin.

    And note that there is no new Minister of Minorities—the position has no been filled.

    That leaves Pakistan’s threatened minorities even more vulnerable—not just Christians, but the Hindus and Sikhs Bhatti represented, as well.

    More:

    According to a story by Morning Star News, the suspects have confessed, according to Dr. Paul Bhatti, brother of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was gunned down on March 2 2011.
    ……………………………..

    In that case, Pakistan would not just be releasing “suspects”—appalling enough—but *confessed murderers*.

    More:

    However, prosecution will be difficult after death threats from Islamic extremists forced Paul Bhatti to flee the country, and banned extremist groups are demanding the release of the suspects for progress in talks with government officials.
    ……………………………..

    One might ask what sort of “progress” can be made if it comes at the expense of the country being able to try murderers of a cabinet member. But then, Pakistan as a Muslim country may well not care about such things when it comes to Infidels or the “insufficiently Islamic”.

    More:

    “Indeed it is a serious matter – perhaps this is why they hadn’t been pursuing the case,” he said, noting that Bhatti’s absence from hearings and reduced contact with investigators would impair prosecution. “We did our job and arrested the accused. It’s now up to the court to punish them. But if the complainant does not show up at the hearings, there’s little hope for the killers to be convicted.”
    ……………………………..

    Let *that* sink in. Paul Bhatti is not a witness, he is the complainant. That means that Pakistan is unwilling to pursue justice for the victim on their own. That the victims was a *cabinet member* makes this all the more disturbing.

    What hope is there for victims like Asia Bibi in this insane climate?

    And why is the West—the United States, in particular—still funding this Shari’ah horror show?

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • William Garrison on The Fantasy Islam of Rice University’s Craig Considine (Part 3)
  • Vladimir on Islamic Republic of Iran: Turkey’s Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests
  • John on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Vladimir on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.