SWABI: Mohammad Iqbal Khan is likely to miss the announcement of the anti-terrorism court’s judgment in his son Mashal Khan lynching case, as he is these days on UK tour.

However, Mashal’s mother told Dawn on Tuesday that she was hopeful to get justice in the lynching case of her son. The court is set to announce its verdict in the case on February 7. Mashal Khan, a student of journalism department in Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan and a resident of Zaida city in Swabi district, was lynched to death in April last year by an angry mob after allegations of blasphemy surfaced against him.

The hearing of the case was held in the heavily-guarded Haripur Central Jail on the request of Mr Iqbal who had demanded shifting of the case to Peshawar or other district from Mardan where he allegedly faced grave security threat from his “influential adversaries”.

Mr Iqbal, who had left for UK on January 14, is likely to stay there for 35 days, according to the visa issued to him. He was expected to return home on February 17 or 18. At the time of his departure for UK, he was not aware that the judgment in Mashal’s murder case would be announced on Feb 7.

Father likely to miss Feb 7 verdict

Sources said that Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Malala Yousafzai, was in fact instrumental in inviting Mr Iqbal to UK and arranging his lectures in Oxford, Cambridge and some other universities.

He had given the lecture in Urdu which was translated into English for the audience to understand his views about his son’s tragic death.

Mr Iqbal’s family said that they had informed him about the verdict’s date, but he had not yet confirmed whether he would return before Feb 7 or not.

Mashal’s mother said that they wanted justice as they were deprived of their beloved son in the most brutal way. “I did not have the courage to see the Mashal’s killing videos. When I touched his body after the incident I thought where had gone his beautiful hands and other parts. This will haunt me for the remaining life,” she said.

About the court verdict, she said that the involvement of every person in her son’s killing was crystal clear and there was no ambiguity in her mind about the perpetrators. “The video evidence removes all the doubts,” she said.

“We have repeatedly pleaded for justice to Mashal and we hope that justice would prevail in way to prevent killing of other mashals (youngsters) in future,” she said, adding that the assailants had not only killed Mashal, but also his future and insulted his body, violated all norms of humanity and ruined his journey to acquire knowledge.

Mashal’s mother said that her daughter Storia Iqbal and Saba Iqbal had been forced by the lynching incident to give up education because they did not have the power to bear more incidents after Mashal’s killing. The former was a student of Pharmacy Department in the University of Swabi and the latter a ninth grader.

“Neither the government nor any other organisation came forward to help in education of Mashal’s sisters. They were forced by the circumstances to stay at home without continuing their education,” she said.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2018

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