Bunking off college for joining Faizabad dharna: Student kills college principal over ‘blasphemy’

CHARSADDA: A second-year student of a private college allegedly shot dead the principal after accusing him of committing blasphemy.

Locals said Faheem Ashraf shot dead Sareer Ahmed, the principal of the New Islamia Public High School and College, on the Matta Road in Shabqadar town of Charsadda district after accusing him of blasphemy.

The Frontier Constabulary personnel arrested the accused along with the weapon of offence and handed him over to the Shabqadar Police. The local sources said that the accused was chanting slogans at the time of his arrest and claiming that he had killed a blasphemer.

However, the sources said that the slain principal was a practising Muslim. They said Sareer Ahmed had a masters’ degree in Islamic Studies from the University of Peshawar and was a Hafiz-e-Quran. They said the charges of blasphemy against the slain principal were baseless.

Students and locals staged a protest against the killing by coming out on the roads. The protest caused disruption of traffic. The sources said that the accused, Faheem Ashraf, had gone to Rawalpindi to attend the anti-government protest at Faizabad organised by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan headed by Maulana Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

The college administration had marked him absent when he was away attending the Faizabad sit-in (dharna). This had angered the accused who exchanged harsh words with the principal.

Meanwhile, the accused, Faheem Shah, in his initial statement after the arrest, told the police that he was repeatedly told not to hesitate or fear in killing on the path of Allah. He said that he had fired six shots at the principal one after the other and he was alone in this act and none other was involved in it. He admitted to the murder and claimed having no fear of any punishment.

District Police Officer, Zahoor Afridi, told The News that no evidence of blasphemy had been found yet against the slain principal. He said the accused was under investigation and the facts would be unearthed soon.