Video shows Mashal attackers greeting one another after committing crime
MARDAN: Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Registrar Sher Alam Khan on Tuesday issued a notification suspending seven university employees who were nominated in the first information report (FIR) of Mashal Khan's murder case.
The suspended university employees include Muhammad Ajmal, office assistant at the Central Library, Anas Ali Sangar, office assistant, Department of Botany, Hanif Khan, senior clerk, Department of Bio-Chemistry, Ali Khan, office assistant, Department of Planning and Development, Afsar Khan, superintendent, Directorate of Academics, Sajjad Ali, storekeeper, Central Library, Nawab Ali, assistant, Department of Physical Education and Sports.
Meanwhile, members of the Mardan Press Club at a meeting criticised the police, saying the regional police officer and district police officer didn't answer phone calls of the journalists to provide them updates about the Mashal Khan lynching incident. Mardan Press Club president Muhammad Bashir Adil presided over the meeting and its general secretary Jamal Hoti, vice president Bakht Muhammad, joint secretary Yousaf Khan, finance secretary Pervez Shaheen and others attended it. The meeting said police didn't provide information to the local journalists, which created problems for them. It said the journalists in Mardan would boycott the press conferences and other events of the police as a mark of protest.
Sabah adds: A new video circulating on Tuesday contains footage of scenes following the Mardan university lynching and shows a man demanding that a group of students take an oath to conceal the identity of the man who shot 23-year old Mashal Khan.
The video shows the mob involved in the lynching shouting religious slogans and congratulating each other over the brutal episode. In the video a man who appears to be the ringleader Arif is heard proclaiming that anyone who names the shooter will be considered a blasphemer.
The following is the text of the slogans being chanted in the video:
"Congratulations congratulations
Silence silence
Whoever shot him [Mashal] don’t take his [the shooter’s] name.
Whoever takes his [shooter’s] name will commit blasphemy. If you want to file an FIR my name is Arif."
The declaration appears to be a veiled threat to silence those who may testify against the murder and protect the main culprits. Arif names himself and his father and states that anyone who wished to lodge a First Information Report in the case is free to nominate him for the murder.
At least one individual can be identified as Arif, a tehsil councillor in Mardan and a general secretary of the Insaf Student Federation, the student wing of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which governs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Arif was arrested by police the day after the incident took place. Meanwhile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary information Naeemul Haq said any person involved in the murder of Mashal Khan will be punished.