The Elite Force guard who gunned down Punjab Governor Salman Taseer is said to have been be associated with “Dawat-i-Islami”, a non-political religious group with Barelvi* leanings, reports Xavier Patras William, special to ASSIST News Service. This was disclosed by a colleague of Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed assassin. More than 500 religious scholars belonging to the Barelvi school of thought paid rich tributes to the assassin of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on Friday and urged “Muslims across the country” to boycott the mourning announced for the governor. While the Deoband Islamic group and Barelvi leaders appear to be on the same page when it came to condemning the assassinated Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader for terming the blasphemy law as a black law, the Barelvi scholars, who claim to be the “true lovers of the Holy Prophet”, have taken a more hardline stance. The largest body of the Barelvi group, the Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan (JASP), whose directions are considered binding on every other organization that follows the same school of thought, issued a statement saying that “No Muslim should have attended the funeral or even try to pray for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident.” The statement which has been endorsed by senior Barelvi leaders such as Professor Saeed Shah Kazmi, Allama Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Syed Shah Turabul Haq Qadri and Hajji Mohammad Tayyab calls the assassin Mumtaz Hussain Qadri “Ashiqe Rasool Ghaziye Mulk” (Lover of the Prophet, Commander of the Country). “We pay rich tributes and salute the bravery, valor and faith of Mumtaz Qadri,” the statement said, adding that the ministers, politicians, “so-called” intellectuals and anchor persons should learn lessons from the governor’s death. The scholars said that those who insult the Holy Prophet, even if they did not intend to, were liable for death. Hajji Mohammad Tayyab, who is also the secretary general of the Sunni Ittehad Council, told the media that scholars had “repeatedly urged the president, prime minister and Governor Taseer himself that if their knowledge about the blasphemy law are limited, they should consult them and avoid debating over the issue as it would inflame the people and then anything could happen.” Shah Turabul Haq Qadri’s son, Siraj, also a senior member of the JASP, endorsed the statement and said it was now binding on every Muslim. A First Information Report was registered at the Kohsar police station on a complaint lodged by Shehryar Taseer, a son of the assassinated governor.He said in the complaint that his father had his own point of view on important issues. Because of this he had received several threats from different religious and political groups. Mr Shehryar said Qadri had murdered his father with cooperation and willingness of religious and political groups. The Punjab government also formed an inquiry committee comprising Special Branch’s Additional IG, Nasir Khan Durrani, Additional IG, Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, and DIG’s Shoaib Dastgir. Mr. Durrani, who heads the committee, told the media that they would identify loopholes, shortcomings and lapses in the security protocol. This committee will also grill the Elite Force personnel for their inaction after Qadri opened fire. Mr. Durrani said the committee would finalize its report in a couple of days. Giving the other side of picture, a senior police officer said the situation could have become confusing for investigators and the government if Qari’s colleagues had killed him. He said that the sub-machine gun used in the murder also serves as a training tool by Elite Force. Recruits receive training for six months in the Elite Training School on Badian Road, Lahore. It includes a VVIP protection course in which they learn how to protect VVIPs from front, back, right and left sides on crowd and rescue them on critical occasions. The training also enables the personnel to fire excellently their target using light and heavy weapons from 50, 100, 200 and 500 meters. The officer said that an Elite Force policeman got Rs3,000 as extra monthly allowance after completing his training. What are we to make of the fact that as Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed killer of Pakistan’s liberal governor of Punjab province Salman Taseer, was being led to court on Thursday, 400 lawyers rallied in the killer’s support, showered him with rose petals and clambered over each other to offer him free defense counsel? In most countries, establishing the rule of law and an independent judiciary is a key moment -- perhaps the key moment -- on the road out of feudalism toward a self-confident and coherent society. Taseer’s crime, according to Qadri, was that the governor lobbied for the repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy law -- which imposes draconian punishments, including the death penalty, for anyone deemed to have insulted the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. Qadri also says he considered Taseer a blasphemer, and therefore worthy of killing, for having defended Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five who was sentenced to death after getting into an altercation at a well. It seems she said some unacceptable words after Muslim women accused her of making the water unclean because of her religion. There was no outrage from the political or legal establishment when 50 Islamic clerics issued a fatwa authorizing the murder of Taseer a few weeks ago. And when 500 clerics this week said it would be “un-Islamic” for anyone to attend his funeral, most leading politicians and would-be reformers stayed away. *Barelvi is a movement of Sunni Islam originating in the Indian subcontinent. It was started in 1880 to defend contemporary traditionalist Islamic beliefs and practices from the criticisms of reformist movements.
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