{"id":23575,"date":"2016-02-29T01:12:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T01:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/pakistan-hangs-anti-blasphemy-law-governor-s\/"},"modified":"2016-02-29T01:11:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T01:11:41","slug":"pakistan-hangs-anti-blasphemy-law-governor-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/pakistan-hangs-anti-blasphemy-law-governor-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan hangs anti-blasphemy law governor’s assassin"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Mumtaz Qadri was executed over 2011 killing of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who sought to reform blasphemy laws.}<\/p>\n

Pakistan has hanged the assassin of a governor who sought to reform the country’s blasphemy laws, officials and supporters said<\/p>\n

Mumtaz Qadri – feted as a hero by many supporters – was executed at a prison in Rawalpindi on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

“I can confirm that Qadri was hanged in Adialia jail early Monday morning,” senior local police official Sajjid Gondal told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

A prison official confirmed the execution of Qadri, who killed Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in 2011.<\/p>\n

Dozens of rangers and police in riot gear as well as ambulances were stationed outside Qadri’s home in the city early Monday.<\/p>\n

During his trial, Qadri’s legal defence was that Taseer opposed Pakistan’s so-called “blasphemy laws” by supporting Christian woman Asia Bibi, who was charged with allegedly desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.<\/p>\n

Qadri was convicted and sentenced in late 2011. But he is viewed as a hero by many people who thought Taseer was a blasphemer.<\/p>\n

Blasphemy is a highly controversial issue in Pakistan, and angry mobs have killed many people accused of insulting Islam in the Muslim-majority country.<\/p>\n

The law does not define blasphemy but stipulates that the penalty is death.<\/p>\n

Since 1990, dozens of people have been extrajudicially killed as a result of blasphemy cases.<\/p>\n

\"Punjab<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Mumtaz Qadri was executed over 2011 killing of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who sought to reform blasphemy laws.} Pakistan has hanged the assassin of a governor who sought to reform the country’s blasphemy laws, officials and supporters said Mumtaz Qadri – feted as a hero by many supporters – was executed at a prison in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23575"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23575"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}