Pakistani federal minister for minorities killed
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Pakistani Minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was killed Wednesday morning by Pakistan Taliban due to religious reason, reported a local Urdu TV channel Geo.
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The car of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani Minister for Minorities Affairs, is seen after an assassination in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, March 2, 2011a. Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated Wednesday morning by Pakistan Taliban members in the country's capital Islamabad. [Ahmad Kamal/Xinhua] |
According to the report, the assassins who killed the minister this morning in the country's capital Islamabad left a letter on the spot which said they represented Pakistan Taliban and they killed the minister because he was leading a committee against the blasphemy law.
Shahbaz Bhatti was the second high-ranking official killed by extremists in the country due to the fact that he was against the blasphemy law.
On January 4, the Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was also killed in Islamabad due to the same reason. The body guard who killed the governor later confessed he killed him because the governor was against the blasphemy law.
Latest news coming in said that the slain minorities minister received ten bullets in his body.
The assassination took place at about 11:15 am (local time) when some unknown gunmen riding in a car fired at the vehicle of Shahbaz Bhatti which took him from his home in the capital's southwest I-8 area to a cabinet meeting to be presided over by the Pakistani prime minister.
Wajid Durrani, Inspector General of Police in Islamabad, told the media that four men riding in a white Suzuki car stopped the car of the minister and two of them came out of the car and fired at the minister with automatic guns.
Local media quoted police sources as saying that over 20 bullets were fired and the minister received ten bullets in the body. A body guard of the minister was also injured, but the driver remained intact who later rushed the injured minister to hospital.
Dr. Azmat of the Shifa International Hospital where the wounded minister was admitted said the minister died before he reached the hospital.
