ISLAMABAD -- Gunmen shot and killed the Christian Pakistani government minister for religious minorities on Wednesday, the latest attack on a high-profile figure threatened by Muslim militants for urging reform of harsh blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.
The killing of Shahbaz Bhatti further undermines Pakistan's shaky image as a moderate Islamic state and could deepen the political turmoil in this nuclear-armed, U.S.-allied state whose economy subsists on international loans and where militants frequently stage suicide attacks.
In January, Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer was killed by a bodyguard who said he was angry that the politician opposed the blasphemy laws. To the horror of Pakistan besieged liberals, many ordinary Pakistanis praised the assassin - a sign of the spread of hardline Islamist thought in the country.
Bhatti, the sole Christian member of the federal Cabinet, was on his way to work in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, when unknown gunmen riddled his car with bullets, police officer Mohmmad Iqbal said. The minister arrived dead at Shifa Hospital, hospital spokesman Asmatullah Qureshi said. AP