Pakistan: 'Don't blame blasphemy for Bhatti's killing,' asks government representative

Pakistani delegate said freedom of speech could not justify defamation and blasphemy. "It is important to prevent the deliberate campaign of defamation of Islam and its Prophet.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Canada Desk
Source/Credit: Montreal Gazette
By Robert Evans | March 4, 2011

Pakistan yesterday asked countries not to link Wednesday's killing of its only Christian government minister to blasphemy.

Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who had called for changes to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, was shot in Islamabad. Pakistani Taliban militants said they had assassinated him as a punishment for blasphemy.

"We believe it would not be helpful to link the highly regrettable killing squarely in the context of defamation (of religion) and blasphemy," Pakistani delegate Asim Ahmad told the United Nations Human Rights Council.


He said freedom of speech could not justify defamation and blasphemy. "It is important to prevent the deliberate campaign of defamation of Islam and its Prophet."

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