Pakistan hangs bodyguard who killed blasphemy reform governor

Pakistan on Monday executed a man who killed the governor of Punjab province over his call to reform the country’s strict blasphemy laws that carry a death sentence for insulting Islam, police said.

Protests broke out within hours by supporters of the killer, who consider him a hero who defended the faith, broadcaster Geo TV reported.

Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, shot him dead in the capital, Islamabad, in 2011.

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“Qadri was hanged at around 4.30am,” senior police officer Rizwan Omar Gondal said. The execution took place at the Adiala jail in the city of Rawalpindi outside Islamabad.

Taseer had championed the cause of a Christian woman sentenced to death in a blasphemy case that arose out of a personal dispute. Taseer had said the law was being misused and should be reformed.

Late in 2011, an anti-terrorism court handed down a double death sentence to Qadri for murder and terrorism.

The sentence was appealed and upheld by the Supreme Court late last year.