Pak Taliban involved in Shahbaz Bhatti's assassination: Officer

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were involved in the assassination of former Pakistan Minorities Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IG) Bin Yamin has said.

The IG made these comments while briefing a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, chaired by Senator Talha Mahmood, in Islamabad, The Express Tribune reports.

It had earlier been reported that family rivalry, not religious victimisation, had claimed Bhatti’s life.

In a report, police investigators had concluded that it was not a religiously motivated murder, despite the fact that the Punjabi Taliban had claimed responsibility for the assassination.

Bhatti was shot by unidentified gunmen on March 2 as he left his mother’s home in a residential area of Islamabad. Police said the attackers fired at least 25 bullets at his vehicle.

Before his assassination, the then minorities affairs minister had defiantly campaigned for the release of Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death last November for allegedly committing blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.