Daily Times

PEHAWAR: “I never committed blasphemy, I am a Sufi myself, please take me to hospital.”

These were the last words of Mashal Khan, a student of Journalism Department, who was yesterday beaten and killed by a mob over blasphemy charges, said by his close friend on social media.

Mashal Khan was buried today at Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a small town Zaida Swabi. Hundreds of people participated in his funeral.

Iqbal Khan, father of Mashal Khan said that his son never committed blasphemy and this was fake charge against him, adding that he never had such kind of mind and he was always loving his religion.

“What was the sin of my son why he was killed, this was not the first incident in this country, hundreds people were killed on such charges, I am begging for justice,” said the old Iqbal Khan while tears were rolling on his face.

“If my son accepts the allegation and charges over him in front of police or judiciary then I will accept,” he said, adding that his son was killed with special planning of blasphemy charges like as in this country happened in the past.

“On Thursday, he talked to his mother that I will be coming to home on Friday, we were waiting for him but not for his dead body,” Iqbal Khan added.

“Civil society and Human Rights should asked the Pakistan government about my son killing, he was killed with stones and sticks and no one want such death”.

Meanwhile the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that the provincial government will constitute Judicial Commission to conduct an independent inquiry of the Abdul Wali Khan University incident.

This he announced on Friday in a press conference here at Peshawar.

The CM condemned the incident and said that this was condemnable incident, adding that the law never allowed any citizen to take the life of anyone.

He further added that Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mardan will submit an inquiry of the incident and after that the Judicial Commission will be constituted. The chief minister was defending the role of police in matter as journalists questioned about police presence during the whole situation when the mob was lynching the student to death.

“Police contingents had not reached the campus at that time and those few were present could not open fire to disperse the mob.

They tried their best to protect the student but the 500 mob outnumbered them,” Khattak said, adding, “Police would have committed mistake if they opened fire.”

Police is independent in KP and free from any political interference. “Police know their job well and they understand their duties we will not interfere,” he said.

It merit mention here that in social media people, politicians and civil society members condemned the incident and demanded the government to provide justice to the aggrieved family.

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf Chairman Imran Khan tweet “To target a whole ethnic group in this discriminatory manner is unacceptable. We demand this victimization of our Pushtun citizens”.