MARDAN - Even after the passage of more than a month of the joint investigation team (JIT) report in Mashal murder case, neither police and nor the university administration has acted upon the JIT recommendations.

On April 13, a mob of students and employees of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan (AWKUM) lynched Mashal Khan, a student of Journalism and Mass Communication Department, after accusing him of having committed blasphemy. Later, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the incident and on directive of the SC; a 13-member joint investigation team was formed to probe the case.

On 3rd June, the JIT completed its report and submitted it in the court. The report exposed alleged incompetence of the university administration, failure of the police and presence of criminal mindset in the ranks of Pakhtun Students Federation (PkSF).

According to the JIT report, Mashal Khan, a brilliant student of journalism with deep insight of the student rights and matters pertaining to the university administration, used to speak openly about the administrative problems and other issues in the university. Days before his brutal murder, he set up a protest camp outside the university to press the government for early resolution of various problems in the university, especially appointment of vice-chancellor. 

The JIT in its report clearly mentioned that scores of employees of the university had criminal record in the past. It was suggested in the report that strict departmental action should be taken against the Registrar Sher Alam Khan, Director Administration Pir Asfandyar, Security Officer Himayatullah Afridi, Provost Fayaz Ali Shah, Chief Proctor Idress, Director Sports Farooq Khan and Assistant Registrar Humayun for their incompetence. The report also called for scrutinising record of all the employees.

On the other hand, sources in the university said that a lot of irregularities were made in admission procedure, especially in the Journalism and Mass Communication Department in the first batch. The sources added that administration of the same department gave admission to government officials without any No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the parent department and also violated merit in the admission procedure. Source added that the government employees also got admission in the same department through fake documents with the connivance of the department administration.

After passage of several days of the incident of Mashal Khan murder, the provincial government on demand of local administration appointed Dr Jahanzeb Khalil as pro-vice chancellor of the university. Sources in the university said that the government gave task to the pro vice chancellor to strictly act on the recommendations of the JIT report.

However, after his appointment, Dr Jahanzeb made a few transfers and adjustments in the administration and has not fully acted on the JIT recommendations so far.

It may be noted that the JIT had also raised question on police officials’ role during the incident and had suggested departmental inquiry against the police officers but police high ups did not take any action in this connection.

When the JIT report came on media, parents of the suspects arrested in Mashal Khan murder case, Pakhtun Students Federation (P.S.F), and religious parties of the district had rejected the JIT report and declared it one sided. 

The local police have identified 60 suspects in Mashal Khan murder case through video footages down loaded on social media and arrested 57 suspects and three suspects including PTI tehsil councillor Arif Khan and PSF activists Sabirullah Mayar and Asad Katlang are still at large.