February 07, 2018
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak on Wednesday lamented that his party’s political rivals played politics on the cases of Mashal Khan and Asma Rani.
Talking to Geo News, Khattak praised the performance of the province’s police and said their hard work resulted in the culprits being sentenced.
He added the culprits in the case of Asma Rani, a medical student who was shot dead in Kohat for refusing a marriage proposal, will also be caught soon.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan phoned Mashal Khan’s brother after the verdict, and according to a statement released by PTI, Aimal thanked the party and the KP government for their help in the case.
Justice would not have been served if PTI was not standing beside us, the party statement quoted Aimal as saying.
According to the notification, Aimal also told the PTI chief he hopes the promise to name a university department after Mashal would be fulfilled.
Imran said KP government fulfilled its promise of dispensing justice and said that its decision to appeal the acquittal of 26 in the case is commendable, the notification stated.
The anti-terrorism court (ATC) hearing the murder case of university student Mashal Khan announced its verdict on Wednesday, awarding the death sentence to one accused and handing life sentences to five others.
Twenty-five accused in the case were awarded sentences of four years each, while 26 suspects were acquitted by the court for lack of evidence.
On April 13, 2017, 23-year-old Mashal Khan was lynched and murdered by an angry mob at the Abdul Wali Khan University on the pretext of committing blasphemy. However, investigators found no proof of blasphemy and ruled that the murder was politically motivated.