3 September 2009 / REUTERS, AP, ISLAMABAD
Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded Pakistan's religious affairs minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, in an attack in the capital Islamabad on Wednesday that killed his driver, police said.
Kazmi, a cleric and vocal opponent of Pakistan's hard-line Taliban, belongs to the Barelvi sect, whose moderate adherents of Islamic sufi mysticism venerate saints and their shrines. "Gunmen sprayed bullets on the minister's car," said a police officer who identified himself as Qasim. Pakistan has been braced for retaliatory attacks by Taliban insurgents and groups linked to al-Qaeda since a US missile strike killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Aug. 5. Local television news channels showed images of Kazmi with what appeared to be a leg wound. "Mr. Kazmi is wounded but stable," said Khalid Hussain, a doctor at Islamabad's Federal Government Services Hospital. The army launched a campaign in April to clear the Taliban from Swat and Buner, two valleys a few hours drive from Islamabad, and has since bottled up the main militant stronghold in South Waziristan. Pakistan's show of force has helped allay fears among allies -- particularly the United States and other countries with troops in neighboring Afghanistan -- that the nuclear-armed country was failing to confront militancy.
