Islamabad - Soon after the news of Jamaat-e-Islami Mardan leader Attaul Haq and Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl leader of the district, Shujaul Mulk having welcomed the freed accused in Mashal murder case at Rashakai interchange of Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway went out, men and women from all walks of life took to social media to express their anger over glorification of the suspects of the AW Khan University, Mardan lynching incident.

Those who reacted fiercely to terming the murder accused as ‘ghazis’ included both the liberals as well as religious figures. Defenders of Jamaat could offer no explanation other than posting a message by the JI Spokesperson Ameerul Azeem saying it was not the party policy, rather an act of the local organisation. Azeem also reminded that the JI head Sirajul Haq had condemned Mashal’s murder in the Senate.

Ironically, the JUI-F Mardan organisation also welcomed the freed murder accused, but it was the JI that was targeted in majority of the social media posts, probably because of the party’s extremist image in people’s minds due to its history. The JUI-F local organisation remained siding with the alleged killerxs through the whole saga, but as the party chief Fazlur Rehman has a relatively soft image nationwide, this act of the party’s local organisation was ignored. Rashid Ali Durrani, a JUI-F activist, however, wrote that he was ashamed of being a supporter of a party that welcomed murder suspects with pride.

The Jamaat, was, however, condemned widely by social media users; some saying that the party had left no space for doubt into its extremist character.

Qari Hanif Dar, a popular social media writer, wrote that the Mashal murder actually led Jamaat to death, to which Mohsin Kamal commented that the state must bring to book all those who defied its writ in open at Rashakai interchange.

In another post, Qari Hanif expressed that it meant that arrest of “rather bigger ghazis” from the houses of JI leaders in the past was not a mere coincidence.

It is newsworthy that the accused who was granted capital punishment in the case belonged to the JI, the major coalition partner in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government.

Mubarak Ali, controller news at a regional language news channel, while reacting to a post from the JI Mardan official page wherein the party’s district leader invited the supporters to welcome the freed Mashal murder suspects, expressed in a tweet that the ‘real’ culprits were known and evidences were also there but the law could not take its course against them.

The JI Mardan official page reportedly deleted several posts on the subject after criticism.

Renowned social media writer Farnood Alam pointed out that by welcoming the murder accused and calling them ‘ghazis’, the Jamaat looked as if accepting that the suspects were involved in the killing of Mashal. He also reminded that the JI Ameer Sirajul Haq had also ‘endorsed’ Mumtaz Qadri by participating in his funeral prayers.

Rehanul Haq Chaudhary, another social media user, posted that the nation needed to hang the mindset behind Mashal murder prior to hanging the actual culprits. He also posted snap of a news channel screen telling that the JI activists also raised slogans in favour of the accused, Imran, who was granted capital punishment in the case.

Some channels also reported that the JI activists also vowed aloud to do the same to other Mashals as well. A poster widely being shared on social media carrying photo of JI Mardan leader Attaul Haq invited the party supporters to gather at the Rashakai interchange to welcome the ‘ghazis’.

Hasan Khan, a senior journalist, expressed his confusion as to who should he believe in the JI, as, he wrote, some of its leaders were defending Mashal’s murderers, while others were condemning the act of their fellow party men.

–The writer is a member of staff.