Additional Advocate General (AAG) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Waqar Ahmed on Thursday told the Supreme Court (SC) that the shooter in the Mashal murder case has been identified but remains at large.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was informed by the AAG KP that the person who shot at Mashal thrice has yet to be arrested. Police found three bullet casings from the scene of the crime, he added.

The lawyer submitted a report detailing that a total of 36 accused, including nine university staffers, had been arrested in connection with the case, six of whom have confessed to involvement in Mashal's murder before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The main accused in the case, Bilal Baksh, a security in-charge at Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU), had been taken into custody earlier this week.

The lawyer told the bench that as per the court's instructions, a Joint Investigation Team including representatives from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been set up to probe the lynching.

He also said that evidence has been transported to Peshawar for forensic examination.

Mashal, 23, a student of AWKU in Mardan, was shot and beaten to death by a violent mob on university premises on April 13.

Police officials said that he had been accused of running Facebook pages "which allegedly published blasphemous content".

CJP Nisar had taken suo moto notice of the lynching.

In his remarks, however, the chief justice said that the court is not supposed to conduct investigations, nor does it want to interfere in such matters. He instead directed the relevant authorities to conclude their investigations without delay.