SWABI: Even as Iqbal Khan — the father of Mashal Khan, who was brutally murdered at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, on false charges of blasphemy last year — expressed guarded satisfaction over the judgement of the antiterrorism court (ATC) that sentenced one suspect to death and five others to life imprisonment, the slain student’s other family members said the verdict fell well short of their expectations.

They said they would file an appeal with the high court against what they described as a light sentence, particularly with regard to the 26 people acquitted in the case.

A private television channel telecast video footage which showed Mashal’s father as saying that the judgement had vindicated his stance over his son’s lynching. “I had taken a stance that no innocent person should be killed on the basis of a fake news,” Mr Iqbal said while talking to journalists.

He said he “supported the verdict” but added that he would continue his struggle against the injustice done to his son.

In response to a question about the main suspect, Mr Iqbal said: “Imran has rightly been sentenced to death.”

In contrast to Mr Iqbal’s rather measured statement, Mashal’s mother, brother Aimal Khan and sisters, Storia Iqbal and Saba Iqbal, expressed serious reservations over the judgement.

While talking to journalists, Mashal’s mother categorically said her family would file an appeal against the verdict in the Peshawar High Court. “My son was brutally killed in Mardan. We wanted justice but the verdict is ‘insufficient’.”

Their struggle for justice would not stop and her family would even go to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to get it, she said. All those seen in video clips of the grisly incident should be punished.

“Had they not gone there to target my son? What was their motive and why were they at the crime scene?” she asked.

In response to a question, Mashal’s mother said the 26 people who had been acquitted did not deserve to be set free. She said Mashal’s death was particularly painful because his body had been violated and “showered with disrespect”. “His legs and hands were broken... His killing will haunt me till my death.”

Mashal’s brother Aimal said the family would discuss the court judgement with their lawyers and decide on their future course of action.

However, he added that they would approach the superior judiciary with an appeal against all those who had been acquitted in the case.

Both he and his mother welcomed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision to file an appeal in the case.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018