Daily Times

LAHORE – As authorities hanged Mumtaz Qadri, who was convicted of killing then Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, inside Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail early on Monday, TV anchors, journalists and lawyers shared their opinions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites.

Former president Pervez Musharraf said that his thoughts were with Taseer’s family, who can now find some solace and comfort in. “My thoughts are with the slain governor Salman Taseer’s family, who can now find some solace and comfort in,” he wrote on his twitter account.

Qadri, commando of police’s Elite Force, was sentenced to death for assassinating the provincial governor on January 4, 2011, in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market. Declaring Qadri’s supporters terrorists, author and journalist Ali Kamran Chishti appreciated the government’s decision, saying his body should have been buried in an unmarked grave too.

Lawyer Yasser Latif Hamdani said that arrest those who were glorifying the murderer. “There should be zero tolerance for jahalat (ignorance),” he said. TV anchor Moeed Pirzada called hanging of the killer as a good decision. “Nawaz Sharif government is sending all right signals to the world,” he said. “Sensitive issues of Islam must only be debated by authentic scholars else its chaos,” wrote Zaid Hamid, a right-wing commentator.

“I am not someone who celebrates some ones death but today I’ll make an exception. Justice is served. Pakistan apparently moving on the right track,” Imad Qureshi, a reader, wrote in his comment on a newspaper website. “Justice served although it was somewhat late. Hope this serve as a message to other like Qadari,” another reader wrote.

“As Mumtaz Qadri has openly confessed the killing, his execution is purely according to our Islamic law i.e. “Jaan ke badle jaan,” said a paper reader. “He (Qadri) was an individual who ultimately met his fate. We need to rid out the society from those elements who misguide the innocent people through narrow interpretation of the holy scripturesand prepare young people for such acts,” the reader wrote.