AUTHORITIES IN PAKISTAN are on high alert amid increased tensions following the murder of outspoken liberal politician Salman Taseer yesterday.

Thousands of people have gathered in Lahore for the funeral of Taseer, who was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards. The bodyguard, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, was reportedly angry about Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, the BBC reports.

The governor of the country’s Punjab province was shot 26 times as he stepped out of his car on Tuesday near Kohsar market, according to Al Jazeera. Pakistan’s interior minister named Qadri as the attacker – a bodyguard who had been assigned to protect Taseer on at least five or six previous occasions.

Blasphemy Law

Pakistan’s blasphemy law was highlighted in the international press recently when a Christian women was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

As a impassioned defender of minority rights, Taseer championed the cause of Asia Bibi (pictured) who was sentenced to death after reportedly refusing to renounce her faith.

Taseer was apparently aware that there were threats to his life, however they did not deter him from campaigning widely on the issue. Omar Waraich, the Pakistan correspondent for the Independent newspaper, told Al Jazeera:

He constantly insisted that it was much more important for him to speak out and defend the rights of minorities who were in a far more vulnerable position than him,  than to let those threats silence him.

Police are now understood to be questioning the rest of Taseer’s security detail, in an attempt to ascertain whether Qadri acted alone. Questions about how Qadri was able to shoot Taseer 26 times without another guard stepping in have not been answered satisfactorily, according to local police.

Pakistan’s Geo News reported that Qadri had told his fellow guards of his plans and asked them not to shoot him, – promising that he would put down his weapon and hand himself in after killing Taseer.

Taseer’s death is the most high-profile incident since the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, and Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, has called for three days of mourning. However, security remains tight amid fears violence could break out between Taseer’s mourners and extremists who support the act.

International powers have strongly condemned the killing.