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10 January 2011
Last updated at 00:45 ET
Up to 50,000 people marched through the streets of the southern Pakistani city of Karachi against a proposed softening of the strict blasphemy laws.
The rally was attended by all major Muslim groups and sects in the city, including moderates and conservatives.
The demonstration comes days after the killing of the governor of Punjab province Salman Taseer, who had backed the proposed amendments.
The governor was killed by one of his own bodyguards, Mumtaz Qadri.
The killing has divided Pakistani society.
'No compromise' Religious groups blocked a main street in Karachi, holding banners in support of the man who shot dead Mr Taseer last Tuesday.
"Mumtaz Qadri is not a murderer, he is a hero," read one banner at the Sunday's rally, news agency AFP reports.
"We salute the courage of Qadri," said another.
Qari Ahsaan, from the banned Islamist group Jamaat-ud Dawa, addressed the rally.
"We can't compromise on the blasphemy law. It's a divine law and nobody can change it," AFP quoted him as saying.
"I have already clarified and our religious affairs minister has also said that we have no intentions to amend this law," the agency quoted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as saying in Islamabad on Sunday.
Mr Taseer - a senior member of the governing Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - had recently angered Islamists by calling for a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, sentenced to death for blasphemy, to be pardoned.
His bodyguard Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri was detained after the shooting and has confessed to the murder, officials said.
At his first court appearance in Islamabad the guard was showered with rose petals by sympathetic lawyers and hugged by other supporters.
He said he was angered by Mr Taseer's stance against the blasphemy laws.
Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with other farmhands in a Punjab village in June 2009. She denies the charge.
Under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law, insulting Islam is a capital offence.
Critics say the blasphemy law has been used to persecute minority faiths in Pakistan and is exploited by people with personal grudges.
Correspondents say the killing has exposed the deep divisions within the Pakistani society.
While some have condemned the assassination and are mourning the loss of a liberal politician, for some radical, fundamentalists Qadri has become a feted celebrity.
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The rally was attended by all major Muslim groups and sects in the city, including moderates and conservatives.
The demonstration comes days after the killing of the governor of Punjab province Salman Taseer, who had backed the proposed amendments.
The governor was killed by one of his own bodyguards, Mumtaz Qadri.
The killing has divided Pakistani society.
'No compromise' Religious groups blocked a main street in Karachi, holding banners in support of the man who shot dead Mr Taseer last Tuesday.
"Mumtaz Qadri is not a murderer, he is a hero," read one banner at the Sunday's rally, news agency AFP reports.
"We salute the courage of Qadri," said another.
Qari Ahsaan, from the banned Islamist group Jamaat-ud Dawa, addressed the rally.
"We can't compromise on the blasphemy law. It's a divine law and nobody can change it," AFP quoted him as saying.
"I have already clarified and our religious affairs minister has also said that we have no intentions to amend this law," the agency quoted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as saying in Islamabad on Sunday.
Mr Taseer - a senior member of the governing Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - had recently angered Islamists by calling for a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, sentenced to death for blasphemy, to be pardoned.
His bodyguard Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri was detained after the shooting and has confessed to the murder, officials said.
At his first court appearance in Islamabad the guard was showered with rose petals by sympathetic lawyers and hugged by other supporters.
He said he was angered by Mr Taseer's stance against the blasphemy laws.
Asia Bibi was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Muhammad during an argument with other farmhands in a Punjab village in June 2009. She denies the charge.
Under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law, insulting Islam is a capital offence.
Critics say the blasphemy law has been used to persecute minority faiths in Pakistan and is exploited by people with personal grudges.
Correspondents say the killing has exposed the deep divisions within the Pakistani society.
While some have condemned the assassination and are mourning the loss of a liberal politician, for some radical, fundamentalists Qadri has become a feted celebrity.
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