| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Chaos at hearing of Taseer's murderer |
| 2011-01-07 |
| [The Nation (Nairobi)] Chaos engulfed a court hearing for the alleged assassin of a liberal Pak politician today as Islamist protesters forced police to backtrack on plans to relocate the session. The grinning policeman, who confessed to murdering Salman Taseer for his progressive views, has been hailed a hero by the powerful religious right, highlighting how deep the conservative grip on the nuclear-armed country. Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri was showered with rose petals for a second day as he arrived at an anti-terror court in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, more than seven hours after media first gathered in anticipation of the event. The judge had ordered Qadri to appear after he was charged over Tuesday's liquidation, and several hundred Islamist lawyers and madrassa students descended on the premises in a show of support for the 26-year-old. As the crowd became increasingly vocal, Islamabad authorities told AFP that they wanted to relocate the hearing to the capital, where TV footage showed a makeshift court created at a heavily protected municipal building. "The Islamabad administration has issued a notification to conduct a hearing in the Mumtaz Qadri case in Islamabad," administration official Amir Ahmad Ali told AFP, declining to announce when and where exactly Qadri would appear. An armoured car was then seen arriving, presumably with Qadri inside, but in Rawalpindi the crowd prevented the judge from leaving the premises. "We requested the judge that legally he cannot go to Islamabad to hear the accused and he accepted our request," lawyer Malik Waheed Anjum told news hounds. "The judge ordered Islamabad police to present the accused in his court in Rawalpindi," he added. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Let's see: They have nuclear weapons (Iran is just hoping); they get billions of $$ from us each year; they allow entire regions of their country to be run and ruled by Islamic Extremists and terrorists. How come they aren't enemy #1? Looks to be a lot more threatening to the region and us than anyone else. |
| Posted by: sam3rd 2011-01-07 08:59 |