ISLAMABAD - Members of parliament in Pakistani Thursday showed rare unity to condemn the assassination of the country's Minorities Minister and demanded to arrest and punish the culprits.

Taliban gunmen shot dead Shahbaz Bhatti when he was traveling in his car and was going to attend the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Members of the National Assembly, lower house of the parliament, and the treasury and opposition members joined hand to condemn the murder and staged a collective walkout.

It is a rare show of unity by members of the parliament in the crises-hit Pakistan to convey a message to the assassins that they oppose extremism.

Bhatti, the cabinet's only Christian minister, had received death threats for urging reform to blasphemy laws.

In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.

The blasphemy law carries a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. Critics said it has been used to persecute minority faiths.

The police have issued a sketch one of the assassins in the light of statement of Bhatti's driver and witnesses.

Bhatti's funeral will be held in his native village in Punjab province on Friday.