Pakistani Assassin Told Other Officers of Plans

The bodyguard-turned-assassin who pumped multiple rounds into Pakistani Governor Salman Taseer was fulfilling a plan that he hadn't kept too close to the vest: Malik Mumtaz Qadri, a member of an elite police force, told other officers of his plans but was assigned to Taseer's detail all the same, says a senior official. He actually made a request to guard Taseer, reports the Wall Street Journal, which notes that Qadri had previously been axed from a counterterrorism-focused branch of the force over concerns about his Islamist leanings.

Police have detained six officers who were on duty with Qadri and are suspected of abetting the crime by doing nothing to stop him. Investigators are currently looking into Qadri's ties to Dawat-i-Islami, a radical Islamist group that has been fueling recent protests against efforts to change the country's blasphemy laws. Click for more on the assassination. (More Salman Taseer stories.)