Pakistan student’s lynching: 8 charged
Police ’stood away’ as Mashal Khan was murdered, local imam refuses to lead prayers at his funeral, PM Nawaz Sharif condemns act
PESHAWAR/MARDAN: Eight Pakistanis involved in the mob lynching of a fellow university student over his liberal views were charged with murder and terrorism on Saturday, court officials said, as condemnation grew.
Mashal Khan, a journalism student, was stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor of his hostel at the Abdul Wali Khan university in the conservative northwestern town of Mardan on Thursday by a large mob.
A heated debate over religion with fellow students had broken out at his dorm and led to people accusing him of blasphemy against Islam. That attracted a crowd that grew to several hundred people, according to witnesses. The mob kicked in the door, dragged Khan from his room and beat him to death, witnesses and police said.
So far a total of 12 people have been arrested over the incident and police are hunting for more suspects.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday he was “shocked and saddened”, his first statement on the killing.
“Let it be known to the perpetrators of this act that the state shall not tolerate citizens taking the law in their own hands,” Sharif said.
Graphic video footage from the crime scene showed dozens of men outside the hostel kicking and hurling projectiles at a body sprawled on the ground.
A witness said Khan was alive when the police arrived but that they did not approach the hostel until it was too late.
“They could have easily saved his life but they stood away from the mob ... I heard one officer say it’s good that they sent this nonbeliever to hell,” he said.
The Mardan police chief denied the allegation.
Rights activists and civil society organisations held small protests in several Pakistani cities on Saturday condemning the murder, and the UN in Pakistan called for justice. Nobel-winning education activist MalalaYousafzai denounced the killing and said Pakistanis themselves are responsible for tarnishing the image of Islam and the country.
However, at Khan’s funeral on Friday a local mosque Imam who was also Khan’s primary school teacher, refused to lead the prayer, Mashal’s father Iqbal Shayir told AFP. Shayir said he hoped his son’s murder would “evoke realisation among people that killing an innocent is a sin”..