Salmaan Taseer's killing: businesses at Kohsar market still badly affected

Kohsar, a popular shopping/restaurant/café market for VIPs frequented by foreigners, where former Governor Punjab Salmaan Tasser was gunned down by one of his bodyguards over a year ago, has not yet been able to attract back all its customers.
According to shopkeepers and restaurant/café managers, business in the market plummeted after the assassination of Salmaan Taseer for five months and thence began a slow revival; however, business could not reach the level that it was prior to the assassination of Salmaan Taseer. Businesses in the market revealed that mostly ministers, ambassadors, foreigners and VIPs frequent the market and therefore the city police need to make extraordinary security arrangements in order to restore confidence among their clients. "We have hired private security guards but in the current situation presence of huge number of police is mandatory in the market to avert any untoward incident", said a shopkeeper.
"Taseer had enjoyed a late lunch with French Onion soup and Prawn Masala and was in a normal mood before the sad incident. He left the restaurant and after a short time I heard a gun shot. I rushed to see what was happening. But, when I reached the scene, Taseer was lying on the ground in a pool of blood," said Ghulam Nabi, a shift manager of a restaurant located a few yards away from the site where the former governor was shot dead. Superintendent of Police (SP) Muhammad Ilyas when contacted said that police mobile team is conducting regular patrolling in the area. "We have also deployed police in the market to keep an eye open for suspicious people", he said.