MARDAN: A mob comprising hundreds of university students on Thursday afternoon lynched a fellow student on the campus of Abdul Wali Khan University over allegations of blasphemy, officials said.
The deceased was identified as Mashal Khan, a sixth semester student of the BS journalism programme and a resident of the Zaida area of Swabi district. The crowd attacked two other students. One of them is, according to the university administration, in police custody while the whereabouts of the other are unknown.
The administration has closed the varsity for an indefinite period, while hostels have been vacated to foil any untoward incident.
Mardan district police officer Dr Mian Saeed said that the enraged mob beat a fellow student to death over allegations of blasphemy. He said that following the incident, police personnel rushed to the campus and foiled the mob attempt to set the body on fire. He said that they had arrested 59 suspects during a search operation.
Mob attacks victim in hostel guarded by police
A situation report the varsity administration submitted to the provincial government and available with Dawn said that the incident took place at around 1pm, when the mob burst into the premises of the journalism and mass communication department looking for three students, including Mashal Khan.
It said the mob started beating up the students; however, the university administration and police personnel rescued them and they were shifted to hostel number 1 located on the varsity campus.
“Later on the mob attacked the hostel 1, shot Mr Mashal to death and then planned to set the deceased body on fire,” it said, adding that police later dispersed them.
However, DSP headquarters Mardan Ihtiraz Khan said that there was no bullet injury on the victim’s body. “The enraged mob beat him with sticks till death,” he added.
The university provost, Fayaz Ali Shah, said the varsity administration tried their best to control the situation after an aggressive protest by a mob of students in the wake of allegations of blasphemy against the victim.
He claimed that the university administration asked the protesting students not to violate the law and let them take action against the victim, but the enraged students did not pay any heed to their instructions and killed the victim.
He said that the university administration would take action against those found involved in the killing and ransacking of the university offices and buildings.
KP government spokesperson Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani said the provincial government was investigating the incident.
He said they did not have any evidence of alleged blasphemy so far and the provincial government would take strict action against those involved in this heinous crime.
Police personnel baton-charged the protesting students who were demanding that the victim’s body be handed over to them so that it could be set on fire on campus.
An eyewitness requesting anonymity told Dawn that the victim tried to run towards the hostel room; however, the mob chased and overpowered him. “They beat him with sticks and killed him on the spot,” he said.
Lynching footage doing the rounds on social media appears to show angry students chanting Allah-o-Akbar and kicking the naked body with others hitting it with sticks and stones.
A police official at the Sheikh Maltun police station told Dawn that police had yet to register an FIR. However, he said that they had taken 63 suspects into custody in connection with the murder.
He said 14 people were being held at Sheikh Maltun, 19 at Toru and 30 at Ghari Kapura police stations.
Police at Swabi district said that they had received the body from Mardan police and handed it over to the family for burial.
Abdul Wali Khan University has been without a head for the past three weeks, as the last vice chancellor completed his tenure on March 25.
Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2017
