CJP takes suo moto notice of Mashal Khan’s killing

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar has taken suo moto notice of the murder of Mashal Khan by fellow students over allegations of blasphemy.

Justice Nisar has directed Inspector General police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Salahuddin Mehsud to present a report on the incident within the next 36 hours.

Mashal Khan, a journalism student, was stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor of his hostel at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan on April 13 by a violent mob.

Eight university students accused of the lynching were charged with murder and terrorism on Saturday, court officials said.

Police registered two separate cases against 20 suspects under clauses 427, 297, 302 and 148 of the Pakistan Penal Code and section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Meanwhile, police rounded up three more suspects, taking the overall count of arrested people suspected of involvement in the horrific act to 16. The suspects were identified from video footage of the gruesome incident.

A manhunt is still underway for the remaining suspects.

"Eight students were presented before an anti-terrorism court in Mardan over murder and challenging the writ of the state," public prosecutor Rafiullah Khan said.

The court granted police four-day physical remand of the eight arrested students.

DIG Mardan Alam Shinwari, speaking to The News reporter Mushtaq Yousafzai, said no evidence had been found of Mashal being involved in blasphemy in the initial investigation.  

“Till now no evidence has been found which proves Mashal spoke anything controversial about religion or his involvement in blasphemy,” DIG Mardan said.

Read: Initial probe finds no evidence of Mashal committing blasphemy

Nonetheless, the university, in a notification dated April 13, said it would investigate three students, including Mashal, for alleged blasphemous activities and ordered them rusticated and banned from the university premises.

Read: Mardan university provost distances himself from blasphemy inquiry notification

A graphic video footage from the crime scene showed dozens of men outside the hostel kicking and hurling projectiles at a body sprawled on the ground.

Mushtaq Ghani, Information Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the government had also requested the Peshawar High Court to conduct a judicial probe into the incident.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday called on the nation to stand united in condemning the murder of university student Mashal Khan and to promote tolerance and rule of law in society.

"I am shocked and saddened by the senseless display of mob justice that resulted in the murder of a young student Mashal Khan at Wali Khan University, Mardan," the prime minister said in a statement.

The prime minister stressed that perpetrators of this act should know that the state will not tolerate citizens taking the law into their own hands. The prime minister also directed the police to apprehend those responsible for this act.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged that all those involved in the murder of Mashal Khan be brought to justice.

"The state's abject failure to protect Mashal Khan's right to life has created great panic and horror among students and academia. Unless all those who played any part in Mashal's brutal murder are brought to justice, such barbarity will only spread," it said.

At his funeral on Friday, Khan's father said he hoped his son's murder would "evoke realisation among people that killing an innocent is a sin".