KARACHI: A Pakistani businessman who shot dead a Muslim cleric over alleged blasphemy has claimed the killing was blessed by a Saudi-based religious scholar, a police official said on Monday. Shoaib Khan killed cleric Nadeem Ahmed on August 31 as he delivered a sermon at his home in Karachi. Shoaib later surrendered to the police, while showing no remorse for the murder since he believed the cleric had committed repeated offences of blasphemy, police official Mohammad Khalid said. "Shoaib has been charged with murder and claims that Nadeem used to insult Islamic teachings and the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) his sermons," Khalid told Reuters. "Shoaib says he recently went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he got a fatwa (edict) from a religious scholar saying it was okay to kill Nadeem as his sermons were blasphemous. Shoaib has no regrets over the murder and is content with himself. He says he has done it for Islam." The dead cleric had run his own missionary organisation, and police have been checking to which sect it belonged to determine whether the murder was motivated by sectarian hatred.