Pakistani governor murdered by police guard

ISLAMABAD - The governor of Pakistan's most dominant province was shot and killed yesterday by a bodyguard who authorities said was angry about his opposition to blasphemy laws carrying the death sentence for insulting the Muslim faith.

Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, regarded as a moderate voice in a country increasingly beset by zealotry, was a close ally of U.S.-backed President Asif Ali Zardari. He is the highest-profile Pakistani to be assassinated since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto three years ago, and his death underscores the growing danger to those who dare challenge the demands of Islamist extremists.

Taseer was riddled by gunshots while walking to his car after an afternoon meal at Kohsar Market, a shopping center in Islamabad popular with Westerners and wealthy Pakistanis. He was shot in the back, said Shaukat Kayani, a doctor at Poly Clinic Hospital.

Initial reports indicated the suspected gunman, a police commando guarding Taseer, unloaded up to 26 rounds from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. He could have fired that number in a matter of seconds. Other guards forced the police commando to the ground, according to police and hospital officials.

"It was one shot first and then a burst," said R. A. Khan, a witness. "I rushed and saw policemen over another police commando, who was lying on the road with his face down."

An official interrogating the suspect said the commando had planned the assassination since learning three days ago he would be deployed with the governor.

Taseer's admirers called the governor a profile in courage in a fight for the soul of Pakistan, which has increasingly swung away from South Asia's Sufi-influenced moderation to the more fundamentalist approaches to Islam found in some areas of the Middle East. "He was the most courageous voice after Benazir Bhutto on the rights of women and religious minorities," said Farahnaz Ispahani, a fellow leading member of the Pakistan People's Party, who wept as she spoke. U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter called Taseer "a champion of tolerance."

The death is a blow to Zardari, Bhutto's widower whose ruling party is struggling to retain power after the defection of a key ally. The country's leading opposition party yesterday gave the government a three-day deadline to accept a list of demands to avoid collapse.