From a BBC piece from yesterday about the motive for the killing in Pakistan.


All that one sees are some anguished rants from some of Pakistan's best known liberals, many of whom are not even resident in the country.

Even hours after the assassination, we have seen none of the fierce onslaught against free speech that erupted on social media within minutes after Mr Taseer's murder.

Nor have we seen eulogies of his killers mushrooming on Facebook as they did after Mr Taseer's murder. It is a silence smug in the knowledge that their agenda is not at risk.

So why kill a man who considered himself - and was indeed considered by the world around him - to be so ineffective that he had not even bothered to seek proper security for himself, despite being constantly threatened by Pakistan's millions of faceless fanatics?
, it is all about ideology. It didn't matter if Mr Bhatti's battle had proved to be a non-starter or if he was an ineffective and powerless minister.

What mattered was that he had spoken against blasphemy laws in the past and was likely to do so again if a situation arose. That made him a legitimate target, not to be tolerated, not to be ignored.

Mr Taseer had said that he would continue to fight against blasphemy laws even if he was the last man standing. He could not stand for long.

And the ideology that led to his assassination has now sent another determined and deadly message to the state - that it will continue to fight till the last liberal falls.

This is how different the two commitments are. And for the liberals in Pakistan, this is how hopeless the situation seems to be.