Taseer killing: Cop in Pak PM's security detained - Times of India

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani policeman attached to premier Yousaf Raza Gilani's security detail has been detained along with an official of the country's electronic media watchdog in connection with Punjab governor Salman Taseer's assassination, while investigators are looking for a cleric who motivated the killer.

Mumtaz Qadri, the Elite Force guard who gunned down 66-year-old Taseer in Islamabad on Tuesday for opposing the controversial blasphemy law, told police that he had been motivated by a cleric from the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Qadri, 26, surrendered soon after he shot Taseer in an upscale market.

Despite several raids, police were unsuccessful in apprehending the cleric or tracing his whereabouts, the Dawn newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying. The daily identified the cleric only as 'QH' , apparently the initials in the man's name.

Qadri attended a religious congregation on December 31 near his house in Rawalpindi , where the cleric delivered a speech on blasphemy.

Fired up by the speech, Qadri met the cleric and discussed with him the issue of killing people committing blasphemy. When Qadri asked the cleric how blasphemers should be dealt with, he encouraged the policeman to kill them, the sources said.

"After the motivation I decided to kill the governor," Qadri reportedly told investigators . Investigators have gathered details about the cleric and his name has been put on a list of wanted persons.

The member of PM's security detail is a friend of Qadri and had been in touch with him.