Protests against death sentence handed to Mumtaz Qadri

Описание: (2 Oct 2011)
1. Protesters raising hands and chanting UPSOUND: (Urdu) "Long live Ghazi (Qadri)!."
2. Mid of protesters throwing judge''''s effigy on fire and protesters beating it with sticks
3. Protesters chanting UPSOUND: (Urdu) "Long live Ghazi!"
4. Close-up of effigy on fire, protesters beating it with sticks and chanting
5. Low angle protesters chanting, foreground effigy burning UPSOUND: (Urdu) "Long live Ghazi!"
6. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Asim Khan, protester:
"We are protesting against the wrongful decision against Mumtaz Qadri. They (the court) made a wrongful decision, we demand that he should be released with honour."
7. Low angle shot of effigy on fire, protesters holding flags and chanting
8. SOUNDBITE: (Urdu) Abdul Razzaq, protester:
"They (the court) committed an injustice. The judge did not declare his decision according to Holy Quran. He rewarded a follower of the prophet with the death sentence. He (judge) himself committed blasphemy."
9. Mid of protesters holding flags
10. Close-up of placard reading: (Urdu) "The Decision against Mumtaz Qadri is unacceptable"
11. Wide of protesters chanting
12. Mid of security
13. Wide of protesters
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of people staged a protest on Sunday in Islamabad against against a decision by a Pakistani court to sentence a police officer to death for the killing of a liberal governor earlier this year.
Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer was assassinated by one of his own police guards, Mumtaz Qadri, in January.
Qadri told his trial that Taseer deserved to die because of his criticism of Pakistani laws that mandate the death sentence for insulting Islam.
Taseer, a member of the country''''s ruling party, wanted amendments in the law and had defended a Christian woman sentenced to death under it.
Qadri was convicted and sentenced in an anti-terror court in Rawalpindi close to the capital Islamabad, officials said at the jail, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
During Sunday''''s protest, demonstrators burnt an effigy of the ruling judge and shouted slogans in support of Qadri.
"They (the court) made a wrongful decision, we demand that he should be released with honour," said Asim Khan, one of the protesters.
Under Pakistan law, Qadri can appeal. Death sentences have been rarely carried out in Pakistan in recent years.
Taseer was a wealthy, polarising figure, and one of few Pakistani officials to consistently oppose extremism.
His murder has led to fears the country is buckling under the weight of extremism.
Members of his family have continued speaking out against militancy, and in August, Taseer''''s adult son was abducted from his car in the eastern city of Lahore.
The son''''s fate remains unknown and militants are considered likely suspects in that abduction.

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