Police on Sunday arrested an employee of Abdul Wali Khan University in connection with the lynching of Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student who was attacked by a vigilante mob in Mardan after being accused of blasphemy earlier this month, police officials said.

Bilal Baksh, a security in charge at the university, is the main accused in Khan's murder, police officials said.

The latest arrest has increased the total number of suspects arrested in connection with the tragic incident to 35, police added.

A day earlier, a suspect, produced along with four others in the court of the judicial magistrate, confessed to his involvement in lynching Mashal.

Ashraf Ali recorded his statement before first class judicial magistrate Muhib-ur-Rehman, increasing the number of suspects who have done so to three.

The other three suspects presented before the judicial magistrate were remanded into police custody for four days.

Mashal, a Mass Communication student at the university was attacked and killed by a mob on April 15 for allegedly ‘publishing blasphemous content online.’

The incident occurred on the university premises. The campus was shut down following the incident until further notice and its hostels vacated to avoid a further escalation of violence.

Following the incident, Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak told the KP assembly that no evidence had been found to suggest Mashal had committed blasphemy.