The suspect in this week's assassination of a close presidential aide was showered with rose petals Thursday as he appeared in an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, DPA reported.
Judge Mohammad Akram Awan granted a request for police to keep Mumtaz Hussain Qadri in custody for five days to aid the investigation into the killing at the hearing in Rawalpindi, a garrison city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
Qadri, 26, was a bodyguard for Salman Taseer, who was also the governor of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab. Taseer was shot multiple times Tuesday with a submachine gun in Islamabad. Qadri surrendered to his colleagues and proudly confessed that he had murdered the governor because of Taseer's stance against Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
Qadri was greeted at the court Thursday by dozens of activists of religious parties who shouted slogans in his support.
About 200 lawyers have volunteered to defend him for free.
The murder of Taseer has divided Pakistani society as religious parties and their supporters have praised the suspect and local liberal circles and the international community have widely condemned the killing, saying it was tantamount to taking the law into one's own hands and spreading anarchy in the country.
Taseer, 66, a close adviser to President Asif Ali Zardari, took a firm stand against the blasphemy laws last year when Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was sentenced to death by a court in Punjab for allegedly uttering derogatory remarks about the prophet Mohammed during a dispute with Muslim women.
Police have taken 36 people into custody as they investigate Taseer's killing, including the governor's 16-member security squad and those involved in working out his security details.
Four brothers and the father of Qadri have also been arrested, and the government announced a judicial inquiry into whether the gunman acted alone or was part of a bigger conspiracy.
Taseer launched a campaign to get a presidential pardon for Bibi and criticized the laws that allowed many people to settle scores by wrongfully accusing enemies.
Some religious scholars issued decrees calling for the death of Taseer, one of the most vocal liberal voices against Islamist radicalism in Pakistan, but he remained defiant.