MARDAN - Police yesterday produced four more accused in Mashal murder case before the anti-terrorism court while sources said the administration of Abdul Wali Khan University suspended seven staff members nominated in the first information report of the incident and stopped their salaries.
The police have nominated in the case 20 persons, including university employees, students and outsiders, through video footages. Sources said the students nominated in the first information report include activists of Awami National Party (ANP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP).
The sources said one close relative of ANP Mardan president and district nazim, Himayatullah, has also been nominated in the FIR, adding the police also arrested two nominated accused from Swat on Monday night. The sources said five accused nominated in the FIR have not so far been arrested.
During the interrogation, the arrested accused also mentioned other students involved in Mashal’s lynching. The sources added the police arrested 10 students identified by the arrested accused.
The police produced four accused, Hussain Akhtar, Wajid Ali, Akhtar Ali and Hamza, before the anti-terrorism court, which granted their four-day physical remand. According to the sources, local leaders of various political parties are struggling to protect their activists and are pressurising police in this connection.
Meanwhile, new video footage of the incident has surfaced on social media in which the mobbing students can be seen congratulating each other for killing Mashal and taking oath from each other for not disclosing the names of the killers. They also took oath that if anyone was arrested, he would not identify other persons and if any person did so, he would be declared a traitor.
The sources added that during the previous KP government, a large number of people were appointed in the university on political basis, adding the trend continued and the current government also appointed several employees on the same basis, but formal legal procedure was followed.
In addition, an emergency meeting of Mardan Press Club was held on Tuesday with President Muhammad Bashir Adil in the chair. General Secretary Jamal Hoti, Vice President Bakhat Muhammad, Joint Secretary Yousaf Khan, Finance Secretary Parvez Shaheen and other members of the press club attended the meeting.
In the meeting, members of the press club strongly condemned the attitude of the police officers and said Regional Police Officer Alam Khan Shenwari and District Police Officer Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed avoided sharing information regarding the Mashal murder case with local media. They added that due to the non-cooperation of the police, reporters had to collect information from other sources which were not credible, so they had to provide unconfirmed news stories to electronic and print media.
The members of the press club announced boycotting police programmes and coverage in protest.
On the other side, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan (AWKUM) administration largely remained silent on the issue. However, Registrar Sher Alam Khan issued a notification suspending seven staff members nominated in the FIR. The staff members are Muhammad Ajmal, office assistant at central library, Anas Ali Sangar, office assistant at department of botany, Hanif Khan, senior clerk at department of bio-chemistry, Ali Khan, office assistant at department of planning and development, Afsar Khan, superintendent, directorate of academics, Sajjad Ali, storekeeper at central library, and Nawab Ali, assistant at department of physical education and sports.
AFP adds: A teacher has described the moment he was accosted by a mob which lynched Mashal Khan.
Ziaullah Hamdard, one of Mashal Khan’s teachers, told a private TV channel Tuesday that he saw students shouting slogans against Khan and another student, Abdullah. One university employee threatened to kill Khan and cut him into pieces, Hamdard said. Then the mob began kicking in the door to a washroom where Abdullah had taken refuge.
“All this happened in seconds. They broke the door, some of them had batons, they were furious - suddenly they entered inside... they were not listening to anyone,” Hamdard said.
Police arrived and managed to yank a wounded Abdullah to safety, he said. At the sight of blood and the crowd, he added, “I lost my courage.”
Hamdard rushed to the staff hostel, but around 20 students were already there and accused him of hiding Khan. “They said, ‘You are a non-believer, you have hidden a blasphemer’... They were crazy, they were not listening to me.
“Two of them kicked me and snatched my mobile and locked me in my room.”
Hamdard was rescued by another teacher and spirited away by police. By then Khan, who had been hiding in his own room at a nearby student hostel, was dead.
“Mashal was a Diya (lamp). They have turned off a lamp,” Hamdard said. He apologised to Khan’s parents for failing to protect their son and said his guilt had driven him to resign.
Abdullah, who has been taken into protective custody, claimed the university had wanted him to brand Khan a blasphemer because he (Khan) had criticised the school, according to court documents released late Monday.
A second student told a magistrate he had testified before a university “congress” on the day of the killing, accusing Khan of blasphemy, according to the documents seen by AFP.