‘Protect people like Bhatti’

POLITICAL leaders, activists and religious figures voiced hope for greater tolerance as they mourned slain Pakistan minister for minorities’ affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, at a tribute last Tuesday (2) by a Washington-based group on the 10th anniversary of his killing.

Bhatti, a member of Pakistan’s small Christian community who sought reforms to blasphemy laws that critics say are frequently tools of persecution, was shot at least 25 times as he left his mother’s house on March 2, 2011.

Islamist extremist group Tehrik-e-Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of Bhatti, who had faced particular backlash for defending Asia Bibi, a Christian villager sentenced to death on blasphemy allegations.

Bibi, who finally succeeded in 2019 in resettling in Canada, told a virtual commemorative event she had given up hope after hearing about Bhatti’s death – two months after the assassination of another critic of blasphemy laws, Punjab’s governor Salman Taseer.

Bhatti “helped many poor people like me who were oppressed and helpless,” Bibi said in a video message for the event, organised by the Religious Freedom Institute.

“I want to appeal to the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, that he should protect people like Shahbaz Bhatti because you need people like him to protect Christians and others.”

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau praised Bhatti for the “unwavering stance he took against injustice,” saying: “We will never forget his sacrifice and his message of hope.”