MARDAN: At a time when protests against Mashal Khan’s brutal murder are taking place across the country, a group of clerics has called all the suspects arrested in Mashal’s lynching “innocent”, and demanded their release. The Muttahida Ulema Council (MUC) held a rally near the district administration’s office in Mardan on Friday following afternoon prayers to demand release of all suspects currently in police custody. Mashal, a 23-year-old student of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was lynched and shot on April 13 at the university campus by a mob of fellow students following an accusation of blasphemy. Leaders of several political parties, except the Awami National Party (ANP), attended the rally. Senior members of the council, including former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly speaker Ikramullah Shahid, former MPA Maulana Amanat Shah, Inayat Shah Bacha, and Jamaat-e-Islami’s Attaur Rehman, participated in the rally. They claimed that the “murder suspects were true Muslims, as they fulfilled their religious duties”. Participants also urged traders to shut their shops and join the march. Within 10 minutes all major markets were closed and shopkeepers were seen joining in. More than 8,000 people reportedly participated in the rally.