Another suspect held in Mashal lynching case

MARDAN: The Mardan Police have arrested another suspect in the Mashal Khan lynching case, bringing the number of the arrested persons to 48, police sources said. The sources added the police arrested, Ali Khan, office assistant at the Directorate of Planning and Development at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan.

Ali Khan is said to be an activist of Awami National Party (ANP) while his father Sardar Khan is a member of district council. Ali Khan was appointed at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan on the basis of his affiliation with the ANP, the sources added.

Talking to The News, Sardar Khan, father of the arrested university employee, rejected the police claim that Ali Khan had been arrested. He said on Thursday he along with his son Ali Khan visited the office of the District Police Officer and handed him over to the DPO. He added that the police later claimed that they had arrested Ali Khan. 

The police identified 49 suspects through footages that surfaced after the lynching incident out of whom 48 people have been arrested so far. The source added that Mohammad Arif, Tehsil Councillor of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, couldn’t be arrested so far and the Mardan Police had requested the Federal Investigation Agency to put his name on the Exit Control List.