Pak Punjab Governor’s assassin appears in Rawalpindi court for trial hearing

RAWALPINDI - Pakistan Punjab Governor Salman Taseer’s assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, on Monday appeared in a prison court in Rawalpindi for a preliminary trial hearing.

Qadri has confessed that he killed the governor over his statement regarding the country’s blasphemy law.

According to the Dawn, the hearing was held in the high-security Adiyala prison.

Qadri’s lawyer Shuja Rehman said that investigation reports were submitted to the court before the hearing was adjourned until February 1.

Qadri had shot Taseer in his chest and neck when he was coming out from a restaurant in Islamabad on January 4. The governor died on the spot.

It is the most high-profile political killing in Pakistan since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007.

Earlier, in his official confessional statement, Qadri had claimed that he had acted alone and ruled out the involvement of any religious group in his actions. (ANI)