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Gunmen kill Pakistan lawyer defending blasphemy case
Source: Reuters
Gunmen kill Pakistan lawyer defending blasphemy case
MULTAN, Pakistan Thu May 8, 2014 5:52am EDT
(Reuters) - Gunmen posing as clients shot dead a prominent human rights lawyer defending a professor accused of blasphemy, officials said Thursday, underscoring the danger facing those trying to put an end to religious intolerance in majority-Muslim Pakistan.
Wednesday's killing of Rashid Rehman in the southern city Multan of was the first time a lawyer has been killed for taking on a blasphemy case, police said.
Rehman had been representing Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer in English accused by hardline student groups of making blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed in March last year.
Hafeez had been in prison without being able to find a lawyer until Rehman agreed to represent him in February.
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MULTAN, Pakistan Thu May 8, 2014 5:52am EDT
(Reuters) - Gunmen posing as clients shot dead a prominent human rights lawyer defending a professor accused of blasphemy, officials said Thursday, underscoring the danger facing those trying to put an end to religious intolerance in majority-Muslim Pakistan.
Wednesday's killing of Rashid Rehman in the southern city Multan of was the first time a lawyer has been killed for taking on a blasphemy case, police said.
Rehman had been representing Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer in English accused by hardline student groups of making blasphemous remarks against the Prophet Mohammed in March last year.
Hafeez had been in prison without being able to find a lawyer until Rehman agreed to represent him in February.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/us-pakistan-blasphemy-idUSBREA4709N20140508