More Pakistanis arrested over ‘blasphemy’ mob murder of student
Brings total accused to 22, but little hope is held for conviction
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN // Pakistani police have arrested 22 people after the mob killing of a university student accused of blasphemy, but observers say there is little hope of convictions.
A large group attacked journalism student Mashal Khan last Thursday.
They stripped, beat and shot him before throwing him from the second floor of his hostel at the Abdul Wali Khan university in the north-western town of Mardan.
The brutality of the attack, recorded on a phone camera, shocked the public and led to widespread condemnation, including from prominent clerics.
Prime minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to prosecute the perpetrators as protests broke out in several cities.
Salahuddin Khan Mehsud, police chief of the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said 22 people had been arrested over the murder, up from 12 at the weekend.
They were mainly students but also included university clerical workers. Mr Mehsud said police had found no evidence to support the blasphemy allegations against Khan and condemned the uni- versity for investigating the case without police involvement.
Another senior police officer said many members of the police, prosecution and judiciary sympathised with the attackers and he did not expect any guilty verdicts.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive charge in conservative Muslim Pakistan, and can carry the death penalty.
Even unproven allegations can prompt mob beatings or lesser violence.
“There are hundreds of sympathisers in my force and if I take too much interest in the case I might be killed too,” the police officer said. Although arrests had been made on the basis of surveillance footage and video clips, a court would require witnesses to come forward.
Experiences have shown that this would not be likely – partly because Pakistan has no witness protection programmes.
Saroop Ijaz, a lawyer employed by Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, noted that no Muslims were convicted for torching 100 Christian homes in a 2013 incident in Lahore sparked by blasphemy claims, or for the murder of a young Christian couple a year later.
Vigilantes have murdered 65 people over blasphemy allegations since 1990, according to the Centre for Research and Security Studies think tank.