By Qurat ul Ain Siddiqui KARACHI, Pakistan: Last month, Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated outside his Islamabad home. The so-called Tehrik-i-Taliban (Student Movement) of Punjab claimed responsibility for the attack in pamphlets discovered at the scene of the shooting. The perpetrators stated that their act was a response to the minister’s opposition to …

By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui KARACHI, Pakistan: On Jan. 4, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was assassinated in Islamabad by a member of his security detail. Soon after, Taseer’s bodyguard and assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, surrendered and confessed to the killing. Qadri further said that he had killed Taseer for “committing blasphemy” …

By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui KARACHI: A blast at a mosque in Darra Adam Khel in northwest Pakistan earlier this month killed more than 60 people. Recent attacks like this one have created a considerable challenge for Pakistan in tackling sectarian and other violence in the country. Though this attack on a Sunni mosque was possibly …