Mashal Khan’s second death anniversary

SWABI: The second death anniversary of Mashal Khan who was lynched at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan by fellow students and university employees was observed here on Saturday.

His family quietly observed the death anniversary while a number of visitors turned up at family home in Zaida village.

Mashal Khan was a journalism department student at the university. A mob at the university tortured and lynched him after accusing him of committing blasphemy. Later, the joint investigation team formed by the provincial government cleared him of the charges and said he had not committed blasphemy and was punished under a conspiracy. The mother of Mashal Khan and other women arranged Quran Khwani for the departed soul. The well-wishers and Pakhtun nationalist activists visited his residence at Zaida and expressed sympathy with the bereaved family.

Talking to reporters, Mashal Khan’s father Iqbal Khan said that universities were meant for imparting higher education.

He said there should be no violence on the campuses and those trying to disrupt the peaceful environment should be dealt with an iron fist. “We do not want another son of the soil becoming victim of the brutality that my son faced,” he maintained. Iqbal Khan said that Mashal Khan believed in non-violence. He said he was satisfied with the court verdict in the case of his son. In the latest decision, the anti-terrorism court handed down life imprisonment to two accused and set two others free.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) a few days back sentenced two more accused, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s former tehsil councillor Arif Khan to life imprisonment in the case. Anti-Terrorism Court-III Judge Mehmoodul Hassan Khattak announced the judgment, which was reserved on March 16, awarding Arif Councillor and Asad Zia alias Asad Katlang life imprisonment on four counts each. However, the court acquitted the two other accused, Sabir Mayar and Izharullah, in the case due to insufficient evidence. On Feb 7, 2018 an ATC had convicted 31 of the 57 accused persons who had faced trial in the lynching case, awarding death sentence to the prime accused, Imran Khan, life imprisonment to five of them, and three years’ imprisonment to 25 others. The ATC, which had conducted the initial trial inside Central Prison Haripur due to security concerns, had acquitted 26 of the accused. The court observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against them.