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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...an-gunman.html

Sprayed with 25 bullets: Pakistan's only Christian minister executed by Taliban gunman after campaigning for free speech

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:47 PM on 2nd March 2011

Shahbaz Bhatti was an opponent of blasphemy laws that impose death penalty for insulting Islam

A branch of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the ambushing

Politician had defied death threats and was without protection - despite having bodyguard

Assassinated: Pakistan minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead by suspected Taliban gunmen who sprayed his car with bullets as he drove to work

Assassins sent by Al Qaeda and the Taliban gunned down Pakistan's only Christian minister in broad daylight in the heart of the capital Islamabad today.

Shahbaz Bhatti, a 42-year-old Roman Catholic, died after his car was sprayed with bullets in a carefully planned ambush as he drove from his mother's home.

It was the second assassination in two months of a high-profile opponent of Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.