Brussels, 05/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, strongly condemned the assassination, in Islamabad, of the governor of Punjab province. Ashton's spokesperson published a press release which reads: “Catherine Ashton strongly condemns the brutal murder of Mr Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province on 4 January at a market in Islamabad. (…) The European Union urges the Pakistan authorities to bring the perpetrators of this crime rapidly to justice”.
According to the authorities, the governor of the strategic Pakistani province of Pendjab was slain on Tuesday as a protest against Taseer's stated opposition to the controversial blasphemy law. The Ministry of the Interior states that Taseer, who was 66 and governor of Pendjab (east) since 2008 which is the most populated and politically the most important province of the country, was shot dead by one of his guards who reproached him for opposing the blasphemy law defended by many Islamic organisations. This is the most high-profile political crime in Pakistan since the assassination, in December 2007, of the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, who lost her life in a suicide attack attributed to the Taliban. (Cor-Gp/transl.jl)