As Pakistan comes out of three days of official mourning following the assassination of Salman Taseer, governor of the Punjab province and a senior member of the Pakistan People’s Party, people in Bradford are angry and anxious.

They are angered that Mr Taseer was shot dead by his bodyguard, identified as Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, for publicly voicing opposition to the country’s controversial blasphemy law.

“Salman Taseer is a blasphemer and this is the punishment for a blasphemer,” he reportedly said after the killing on Tuesday.

Senior public figures among Muslims in Bradford are concerned that Pakistan may be in the grip of religious intolerance that may be a threat to their own friends and family. Ishtiaq Ahmed, spokesman for Bradford Council for Mosques, was in Pakistan a fortnight ago with his wife.

He says: “People there have no trust in the authorities with regard to law or justice. If something goes wrong, they don’t call the police. When you have that level of distrust, people take the law into their own hands. We were there for four weeks and couldn’t wait to get out.

“There are people in Bradford who have family in Pakistan who will be very worried. If a governor can be murdered by one of his own security guards, people like me fear for their safety.

“But I think it’s important for the Council for Mosques that we don’t give in to what I call these corrupt minds. Okay, we need to be careful, but it’s important that we keep moving forward.

“We have to reach out to other communities and faith groups as allies if we want to have a peaceful and prosperous life.”

Former Bradford Lord Mayor and deputy leader of the Labour Group Mohammed Ajeeb, appalled by the murder, was distraught by the sight of the killer being given flowers and statements of support and sympathy.

He says: “For me it was an act of terrorism by an uneducated, fanatical, religious young man. What upsets me most is what I saw on TV. Pakistan seems to have gone mad if a murderer is praised and encouraged and rewarded.

“Over the past 25 years, so-called fanatical religious elements have managed to silence some of the sane voices in the country. I thought, after the murder of Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the country was making some progress in civil liberties and promoting tolerance.

“But somehow, it seems to me, this issue of blasphemy is being used by religious leaders to incite and provoke. I would not be feeling secure if I was in the country in the present circumstances. I would be scared, actually.”

It will be argued that the political instability of Pakistan in terms of what’s happening on its borders in Kashmir, in India and, above all, in Afghanistan, is making the work of religious agents provocateurs easier.

Mr Ajeeb will have none of it.

“I am aware of the political situation and what the country is going through. But when are people going to accept responsibility for themselves and stop blaming the Americans, Indian intelligence, the Drone attacks?

“It’s easy to shift blame on to others. The people have got to show they have sufficient tolerance to use the law and the Parliament, not take the law into their own hands,” he says.

Jim Dutt, chairman of the Pakistan Asian Christian Welfare Association, Bradford, said that since 1987 more than 200 Christians and 85 judges in Pakistan had been murdered because of the blasphemy law, and many others were waiting to be hanged.

He says: “Christians in Pakistan need a safe haven. I am writing to the Government in Pakistan and the Government in the UK about this.

“There are millions of decent Muslims in Pakistan and the UK who don’t want the blasphemy law to be misused. But extremist religious elements have high status over there and are very powerful.

“I don’t think Pakistan’s coalition Government is going to repeal the blasphemy law. If anyone tries, they will be at high risk of being assassinated.”

All of which upsets Mohammed Ajeeb. “It’s very sad. It makes people like myself think the country is slipping backwards into darkness,” he says.