Bhatti was ambushed by five gunmen when he came out of his mother’s house in Islamabad.
Inspector General of Islamabad Police Wajid Durrani said the killers spared Bhatti’s driver. He said Bhatti had no bodyguards with him at the time of the attack. Bhatti died before he could reach Al-Shifa Hospital.
Bhatti, a member of Pakistan’s Christian community, was elected to the National Assembly on PPP ticket in Feb. 18, 2008 general elections.
Durrani said, “Bhatti was under threat after he reopened the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman who was sentenced to death by a lower court for blasphemy.”
On Jan. 4, the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, who had strongly opposed the blasphemy law and sought presidential pardon for the 45-year-old Bibi, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.
"This is a concerted campaign to gag every liberal, progressive and humanist voice in Pakistan,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari.
The blasphemy law has its roots in a 19th-century colonial legislation enacted to protect places of worship, but it was during the military dictatorship of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s that the law was amended.
Liberal Pakistanis and rights groups believe the law to be dangerously discriminatory against the country's minority groups.
During an interview with Arab News recently, Bhatti had said the government would not scrap the blasphemy law but an amendment would be made to prevent its misuse.
“I and my ministry have initiated a series of dialogues with all stake-holders after discussing the matter in the Cabinet,” he told Arab News.
“I have planned to meet all chief ministers, governors, the federal minister for law and parliamentary affairs, and the leaders of all religious parties to elicit their views before making changes to the law,” he had said.
