Assassination of Pakistan's Salman Taseer condemned

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regretted the death of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, saying he had promoted tolerance.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called his death "a loss for Pakistan".

Mr Taseer was shot dead by one of his bodyguards angered over the governor's opposition to blasphemy laws.

The governor - a senior member of the governing Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - had recently angered Islamists by appealing for a Christian woman, sentenced to death for blasphemy, to be pardoned.

"I had the opportunity to meet Governor Taseer in Pakistan and I admired his work to promote tolerance and the education of Pakistan's future generations," said Mrs Clinton in a statement.

"His death is a great loss. The United States remains committed to helping the government and people of Pakistan as they persevere in their campaign to bring peace and stability to their country."

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was "shocked" by the killing.

Pakistan's high commissioner to London, Wajid Shamshul Hassan, told the BBC's Newshour programme that the assassination exposed the divisions in his country.

"It has shown that you can be held hostage by a minority of religious people and they can do whatever they want. That is not the way we are going to allow in the country," he said.

"We will be tough on them. Unless we get rid of such people in our society, unless we purge them from the various security agencies, you can't feel that justice will be done."

Witnesses said Mr Taseer, 66, was riddled with bullets from an automatic rifle as he returned to his car at the Kohsar Market, a shopping centre in Islamabad.

Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik said the guard - named as Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri - had confessed to the killing; Kazinform cites BBC News.

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