Mardan University shut down as student beaten to death by mob

MARDAN: A student of journalism at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) was killed and five others injured as blasphemous remarks attributed to him and his two colleagues triggered riots in the university on Thursday.

The unprecedented violence at the sprawling campus of the university prompted the scared administration to close the institution for an indefinite period.Eye-witnesses and officials told The News that the slain student, Mohammad Mashal Khan, who was in his sixth semester and belonged to Zaida village in Swabi district, and his friend Abdullah in a discussion with his class fellows, had allegedly made some derogatory remarks Wednesday evening about Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

The issue was raised again in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Thursday morning as students from almost all the departments at the university’s Garden Campus gathered there to express their anger against the students accused of making blasphemous remarks.

Sensing the seriousness of the situation, some teachers of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department intervened and managed to take Mashal out of the university. His friend Abdullah was locked in the washroom in the office of department’s chairman to save his life. 

“We took Mashal out of the university to Toru area, which he believed was safer for him. However, he returned to the hostel after some time. The angry students chased him in the hostel and killed him,” said a teacher.

The students also smashed the department chairman’s office and brought Abdullah out of the washroom and beat him up. However, the injured Abdullah was rescued and shifted to the nearby Mardan Medical Complex for treatment, he added.

Currently, the university is functioning without a full-time or even an acting vice-chancellor. Prof Dr Ihsan Ali had left the charge on his retirement to registrar Sher Alam a few weeks back. Sher Alam too was not present in the university on Thursday. Shiraz Paracha, Chairman of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department, was also on leave. Severe administrative disorder is reported in the university every day.

The only available officer on the occasion was the provost-cum-controller examination Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah. Talking to The News, Fayyaz Ali Shah said that they had received reports about the alleged involvement of three students in blasphemy. He said on Thursday morning, hundreds of students irrespective of their political and other affiliations tried to attack the accused students.

He said the university management and the police made a timely intervention and tried to control the situation. “We saved the accused students at the Department of Journalism, but the angry mob chased one of them in the hostel and shot him dead,” Fayyaz Ali Shah said.

There were reports that Mashal had already been killed by severe beating before gunshots were fired at him. Soon after the incident, the administration announced closure of the university and evacuation of the hostels for an indefinite period to avert further violence, Fayyaz Ali Shah added.

Some footage shared on the social media showed the angry students hitting Mashal with big stones and even with flower-pots. Mashal’s naked body had many injuries as he had been dumped on the ground and his head was bleeding. Some of the students were raising slogans as they mercilessly hit Mashal with rocks.

The policemen and the members of the university administration could not be seen anywhere in the footage. However, the police claimed to have reached the university well in time. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Haider Khan, the mobsters wanted to burn the body after killing him, but the cops took the body into custody and shifted it to the hospital for autopsy. He said that some 35 students had been taken into custody for taking the law into their hands. 

According to police sources, DSP Haider Khan was also slightly injured during the struggle to disperse the students. No exact account of the alleged blasphemous remarks could be found. The reports suggested that some of his classmates claimed that he had used sacrilegious language against the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Others said that he had shared blasphemous footage on the social media. However, no such footage could be found on his Facebook page.