Men beat their bare chests, women wailed and church leaders warned Pakistan was sinking under the weight of extremism on Friday as they buried a Christian politician assassinated for opposing harsh blasphemy laws.Shahbaz Bhatti, the sole Christian government minister in this Muslim-majority country, was shot dead Wednesday after receiving threats for campaigning to change laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam. He was the second Pakistani politician killed in two months over the matter, and his death underscored the perils facing a government that is increasingly too weak to govern well in the face of rising Islamist extremism.
As Bhatti was being mourned, a bomb blast at a mosque in Pakistan's northwest village of Akbarpura killed eight people, another sign of the militants' strength. Thousands of people thronged the roads in Khushpur, a Christian-dominated village of around 10,000 in eastern Punjab province, chanting slogans demanding justice as Bhatti's body was flown in and driven through in an ambulance covered with rose petals.
Khushpur, a modest village, has been home to several prominent Christians. They include Bishop John Joseph, who killed himself to protest a death sentence given to a Christian convicted of blaspheming Islam when he praised Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses."
Christians are the largest religious minority in Pakistan, where 95 percent of the country's 180 million people are Muslim. They are often victims of discrimination and persecution, and they typically live in poor parts of towns and do low-skilled, badly paid jobs.
Bhatti and Punjab province Gov. Salman Taseer both criticized the blasphemy laws after a Christian woman was sentenced to death under them last year. On Jan. 4, Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards, who said he was angry about the governor's stance on the laws.
