Shrine to Islamist murderer reveals Pakistan's challenges

Pakistan has renewed its vow to root out extremism after a fresh wave of attacks, but a rose-covered shrine in Islamabad built by radicals to glorify an Islamist murderer sends a different message.

Books and posters on offer at the shrine of Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged last year for the murder of a governor who criticized Pakistan's blasphemy law and defended a Christian woman.

Followers of Mumtaz Qadri feted 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.

Qadri assassinated liberal Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2011, angered by the politician's reformist stance on Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws. The state's decision to execute him provoked uproar among Islamists.


"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.

Up to 200 followers were praying and enjoying free food at the shrine on Monday, many coming and going through police-manned entry points, with more expected ahead of a conference on Wednesday where clerics will make speeches about Qadri's "sacrifice".

Pakistan will also host a regional economic summit in Islamabad Wednesday that will be attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with high security expected.

Yet authorities appear unwilling to oppose the Qadri commemorations. 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.