'Somebody has to stand up,' Salmaan Taseer had responded in a television interview last December after being reminded that challenging Pakistan's strong and powerful rightwing Islamists over the country's longstanding, controversial blasphemy law would involve great risk for him. Weeks later, fears over this risk were proved correct. On 4 January, Taseer's official bodyguard emptied two gun magazines in the governor, killing him in the heart of the federal capital.
In so doing, the assassination also deepened already-stark social divisions over a law that the late military ruler, General Zia ul-Haq, introduced in an attempt to 'Islamise' Pakistan during the 1980s. Pakistan's blasphemy law carries the death penalty for any individual found guilty of using derogatory remarks against Islam, the Quran or the Prophet Muhammad. Since its inception, many accused have been tried and convicted under this law by the lower judiciary – although the higher courts have often set aside such convictions.
The bodyguard, a reportedly unrepentant 26-year-old named Malik Mumtaz Qadri who serves in Punjab's Elite Force, has since confessed to the murder. Calm and composed during his production before a magistrate for physical remand, he received a warm reception from a group of bystanders who showered rose petals on him. Among those praising Qadri's actions included lawyers.
The police are now investigating whether Qadri acted alone or was part of a wider plot. It appears that his bosses had failed to scrutinise his links with religious, extremist or other militant groups for security clearance. If investigators find that Qadri did not act alone, the political fallout – in Punjab province in particular and the country in general – will be massive. Punjab, the country's largest and most influential province, is ruled by a coalition government of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif (PML-N). Recently, these two main political forces have been drifting away from each other, and a war of words between them could quickly revert the country to politics of confrontation seen during the 1990s.