United States President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined the international community in expressing their outrage at the assassination of Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti.
"I am deeply saddened by the assassination of Pakistan's Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti in Islamabad and condemn in the strongest possible terms this horrific act of violence," Obama said in a statement.
Pakistan's only Christian cabinet minister Bhatti, a vocal critic of blasphemy law, was shot dead on Wednesday by Taliban militants in Islamabad, just two months after Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was gunned down for opposing the harsh act.
Demanding guilty be brought to justice, Obama said Bhatti was "clear-eyed" about the risks of speaking out, and despite innumerable death threats, he insisted on his duty to defend equal rights and tolerance from those who preach "division, hate, and violence."
He most courageously challenged the blasphemy laws of Pakistan under which individuals have been prosecuted for speaking their minds or practicing their own faiths, Obama said.
US Secretary of State Clinton also condemned the assassination. "I was shocked and outraged by the assassination, reportedly by Al Qaeda linked terrorists, of Pakistan's Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti," Clinton told Senators at a Congressional hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee..
"I think this was an attack not only on one man but on the values of tolerance and respect for people of all faiths and backgrounds that had been championed by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan," she said in response to a question from John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Clinton recently had met Bhatti. "He was a very impressive, courageous man. He was a patriot. He was a man of great conviction. He cared deeply for Pakistan, and he had dedicated his life to helping the least among us," she said.
"When I spoke with him, he was well aware of the drumbeat of threats against him. Despite those threats, when the Pakistan government was recently reshuffled and the cabinet shrunk, he agreed to continue his work as the minister for Minorities Affairs."
In a statement, Kerry said Bhatti was a brave defender of all of Pakistan's religious and ethnic minorities and his death is a loss to his country and his family.
"Coming so soon after the killing of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, another strong advocate for tolerance and moderation, today's act of terrorism is particularly chilling," he said in a statement.
