Thousands of Pakistanis on Wednesday observed the death anniversary of Mumtaz Qadri, the convicted murderer of former governor of Pakistani Punjab Salman Taseer
Sanctified with a marble tomb
Taseer had called for reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and defended a Christian sent to jail for blasphemy. Qadri, his bodyguard, believed Taseer had blasphemed and shot him 26 times in Jan. 2011. Qadri was convicted and hanged on Feb. 29, 2016. He was later sanctified with a white marble tomb
The peace pipe dream
Only around 4,000 people took part in the pro-Qadri rallies (after Pakistan banned demonstrations and blocked streets leading to his tomb). The majority hold peaceful views, right?
84%
Pakistanis want Islamic law—Sharia—to be the official law of the land, a survey by the Pew Research Center in 2013 found. Among those who favour Sharia law for Pakistan, 76 per cent (or nearly 114 million people) are in favour of death penalty for those who renounce Islam
10 mn
Pakistanis held a favourable view of the IS in 2015 though its atrocities across the world, including in Pakistan, are well known. (Extrapolating from a 2015 Pew survey and accounting for the margin of error. The Pakistani population has been taken from a 2015 World Bank estimate. No census has been conducted in Pakistan after 1998)