BARA KAHU: The first death anniversary of Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated liberal Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 over passing controversial comments against blasphemy laws, is being observed on Monday.
Followers of Mumtaz Qadri are set to fete him as a hero at his tomb on Monday, the start of a three-day festival marking the anniversary of his hanging on February 29, 2016.
The state’s decision to execute him provoked an uproar among hardliners.
There could be 400,000 people,” Qadri’s father Malik Bashir Awan told AFP this month as he supervised preparations for the commemoration from his plastic chair at the shrine.
Authorities appear unwilling to oppose it.
And while the government showed unexpected determination by executing Qadri, his family say it did not prevent them from sanctifying him with the white marble tomb, adorned with four tapered minarets and a tiled green dome.
Each day dozens visit the shrine, built on a family plot bordering Islamabad but within the capital’s territory, to seek divine intervention and leave flowers.
The gestures glorifying the fundamentalist are a perverse echo of popular South Asian traditions venerating mystical, tolerant Sufi saints, many of whom helped spread Islam through the subcontinent.
Qadri’s family do not intend to stop there. His father hopes to build a madrassa on the site. Donations from supporters are already pouring in.
