Christians and other minority groups of Pakistan were left in a state of shock when the Pakistani Minority Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was recently assassinated on his way to a cabinet meeting. The gunmen had been waiting for Mr Bhatti close to his mother’s home and attacked his vehicle in broad daylight. The driver was spared but Mr Bhatti was pronounced dead on arrival to the nearby Shifa hospital. In January, the Pakistani government’s only Christian minister told the BBC that he would defy the death threats he has received from Islamist militant in the wake of his efforts to reform a controversial blasphemy law. In a previous interview, Mr Bhatti predicted that anyone who stood up against radical forces would be in harms way but that he himself would rather die than compromise his beliefs. Four months later, his statement rings a hollow truth.

The controversy over the law began in November 2010 when a Christian woman was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Asia Bibi, a 45-year-old mother of five, was arrested after a row over a water source in her village and has become the first woman sentenced to death on the charge of blasphemy. Human rights organizations, the Pope and several other international voices condemned the sentencing and called for the law to be abolished. However, the law receives large support from the Pakistani people, which is mainly Muslim, while the Christian minority represent only 2% of the entire population.

The government has been reluctant to address the law, claiming its removal could inspire widespread anger among extremists and their supporters. Only a few prominent figures have dared to speak out in favor of its abolishment but the consequences has proven to be dire. On January 4, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was gunned down by one of his bodyguards in response to his opposition of the law. Many Muslims saw this as an act of heroism and demanded that the gunman was not to face trial. Another outspoken minority representative, female MP Sherry Rehman, proposed a bill to amend the blasphemy law in an attempt to limit the miscarriage of justice and remove its death penalty. The bill was rejected, however, and Ms Rehman told the BBC that she receives hourly death threats for her position on the matter.

The critique of the blasphemy law is not directed at its favoritism of the Quran. According to Omar Waraich of the independent, talking to AlJazeera, “The problem with this law is that it is very vaguely worded, used arbitrarily, [and] it stops the state from being a neutral actor.” He continues – “vulnerable sections of the community are persecuted as a result – or Islamist militants and other vigilantes use this as a means of cover when they pursue their own sectarian agenda or even personal vendettas against people of a minority faith.”

In many cases, the law has been misused to bring false charges against minority groups in order to settle arguments and acquire land and property. Despite no one having been subsequently executed after sentencing so far, there are over 30 known cases of the accused being killed by lynch-mobs – even after acquittal.

Groups standing by the effort to end the blasphemy fear that extremist attitudes have taken over society. The Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), a UK-based organization for Pakistani religious freedom, expressed deep concerns for the future: “It is a very desperate situation for Pakistani Christians as Mr Bhatti was one of the few people in Parliament who dared to speak up for their rights. With his death, Christians now have no voice in government.” One thing is sure, Christians and other minorities in Pakistan are left with one question: Who’s next?

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2011 March 2nd  in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan the Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti died.

He was driving through a residential district in broad daylight going to a work meeting after leaving his mother’s home, when suddenly his vehicle was surrounded by several armed men and sprayed with bullets. Witnesses said that before to open fire they asked the minister’s driver to get out of the car sparing his life.

“The initial reports are that there were three men who attacked him. He was probably shot using a kalashnikov, but we are trying to ascertain what exactly happened”, said Wajid Durrani, Islamabad police chief. At the arrival to the capital’s Shifa Hospital his corpse was already lifeless.

The Minister Bhatti was traveling with no security escort when the attack happened .It is not clear yet the reason why he was not accompanied by his guards and did not have the standard ministers’ security vehicle.

In recent weeks he expressed his concern about security after he received death threats from some Islamist militants for his efforts to reform the blasphemy law. He explicitly requested extra security when some shots were fired at his residence in Islamabad by some unknown aggressors and the capital’s police chief insisted that proper security had been provided to him, but inexplicably that fateful day no escort was accompanying him.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab,a branch of the Taliban in the most populous province of Pakistan, claimed the responsibility of the attack. “This man was a known blasphemer of the Prophet [Muhammad]. We will continue to target all those who speak against the law which punishes those who insult the prophet. Their fate will be the same”, said Ahsanullah Ahsan, the group’s deputy spokesman. At the scene of the killing were found pamphlets by the Tehrik-i-Taliban and Al-Qaeda warning anyone opposing the blasphemy laws of the same fate of Shahbaz Bhatti.

The blasphemy laws in Pakistan are the strictest among all the Muslim-majority countries. The religious feelings’ outrage is forbidden, the defilement of the Quran is punished with life imprisonment, and the death penalty is prescribed for the “use of derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet”.

Bhatti had always criticized the Pakistan’s blasphemy law and had struggled for the support and the saving of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman mother of four children, sentenced to hang in Punjab in November 2010. She was charged with blasphemy for having insulted the Prophet Muhammad during a row with Muslim women villagers about sharing water. She denied the charges and although the minister Bhatti supported her nothing could be done to save her.

Also the governor of the province of Punjab, Salman Taseer, had strongly opposed the blasphemy law and had fought for the presidential pardon for Bibi. On January he was shot and killed in Islamabad by one of his bodyguards,who has been acclaimed as a hero by many people in the country. For both Tasser and Bhatti their involvement in the recommendation to amendments to the blasphemy law has been the cause of their death.

The event was condemned by the government and by the Christians,that in Pakistan are the 1,5% of the Pakistan’s population.

“We have been orphaned today!Now who will fight for our rights?”, told Rehman Masih, a Christian resident of Islamabad.

Shahbaz Bhatti in all his political career had always supported the religious minorities and he dedicated his life to struggle for human equality, social justice, religious freedom, and to uplift and empower the religious minorities’ communities.

With his death Pakistan lost a fundamental figure that represented a gleam of hope for the minorities for equality and freedom in a country where the civilization and the essential human rights are just an utopia.

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