ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security agencies has started a high level of investigation about the assassination of Punjab governor Salman Taseer who was killed by one of his security guards on Tuesday afternoon in capital Islamabad.
According to officials, police has arrested 36 policemen of Elite force and special police branch who were responsible for the security arrangements of Taseer.
Just after the incident police raided the official room and house of the killer, confiscated the luggage under his use and also arrested his nine close relatives.
Shaharyar, son of the governor, registered a case against the murder at the Kohsar Police station in Islamabad against the killer.
Pakistan's federal minister Reman Malik talking to media told that he had formed a three member investigation committee consisting of higher level police officer.
"Investigation team will check whether it was his (killer) individual planning and attempt or there was any conspiracy behind this brutal act," said Malik.
Police presented the killer before the judicial magistrate in his court in Islamabad and requested for the five days judicial remand. But magistrate Naeem Shaukat denied the said remand and gave only one day remand ordering to present the murderer in the anti-terrorism court which is bound for quick prosecution.
Governor Taseer, 64 years old, was assassinated by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadari, aged 26, with AK-47 gun when he was about to sit in his car after his lunch with a friend at a market in the downtown area of Islamabad.
Qadari fired whole magazine having 30 bullets at governor out which 27 rounds hit the deceased's head, face, neck, chest and belly, medical postmortem report confirmed it.
Following the attack, the assassin laid down his gun and surrendered himself to the rest of the policemen escorting the governor.
The assassin, a commando of Elite Force, a section of Punjab police, Qadari gave a written statement to the police claiming that he took this step because the governor was working against the blasphemy law of Islam which barred to say anything against the Muslims' Prophet Muhammad.
A local Urdu TV reported that during the investigation Qadari told that he had already talked to his colleagues about his plan to kill the governor requesting them not to open fire at him when he would kill the governor.
Quoting the police sources a Urdu daily said that the governor did not inform Islamabad police about his secret visit to the capital while murderer Qadari requested his duty officer to send him along with the governor's security staff.
According to police department staff reports, Qadari was one of those 11 police commandos who were declared unfit for the security of high officials. Police has arrested the official who appointed him on the duty in spite of his unsatisfactory departmental report.
The real motive behind the murder is yet to be investigated as the incident came at a time when the current government of Pakistan people's party (PPP) was facing severe political crises after it has lost the simple majority in the seats of the lower house.
Pakistan's federal minister of law Babar Awan talking to media on Wednesday afternoon termed the incident as "political murder" and demanded a broaden investigation to reveal the conspiracy behind it.
"We cannot say that this incident occurred only due to a security collapse, there are many other points and hints present to be interrogated," said Awan, after the burial of the governor.
A lot of pressure is mounting on the government to investigate the matter speedily. Following the murder a country wide protests started by the PPP workers against the incident.
Taseer is the second highest ranking member of PPP who was assassinated in the last decade in the country after former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated during an election rally in Pakistan in Dec. 2007.
Taseer was laid to rest with full State honor in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday as the country is on mourning for three days. Several PPP leaders including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, other politicians and party workers participated in the prayers.
Latest media reports said that after some basic interrogation police released six waiters of the restaurant where governor took his lunch.
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