Shahbaz Bhatti

After the murder of the Punjabi governor, tragic end also for Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Catholic government leader, shot dead by the Talebans in the centre of Islamabad.

Bhatti was a convinced advocate of interreligious dialogue, in a Country where a Christian a month is killed or arrested. He had become a target of the fundamentalists for taking sides in favour of Asia Bibi, the peasant worker sentenced to hanging based on the blasphemy law. The State wasn't able or willing to protect him with a convoy.

According to the yearly report of the Open Doors association, Pakistan, which is now witnessing demonstrations against bribery, is the eleventh Country on earth for Church persecution. Unfortunately aspirations after democracy clash with a growing risk of fanaticism.

The report of Open Doors

In the press
Extremists Are Suspected in Killing of Pakistani Minister, by Jane Perlez, The New York Times, 2 March 2011
Christian Pakistanis demand capture of Bhatti assassins, Associated Press, 4 March 2011