Daily Times

Islamabad: “People have not just voted for my son. They have voted against the dark shadows of extremism,” Mashal Khan’s father Iqbal Lala says, referring to Herald magazine’s announcement that the Mardan University student killed in a mob lynching incident earlier in the year was its person of the year based on a popular vote.

In an interview with Daily Times on Monday, Lala said he was hopeful that one day his family would get justice. “We will fight till our last breathe to safeguard many more Mashals studying in the various institutions of Pakistan,” he said.

He said his son’s election was a sign that people were tired of the suffocating environment first brought about by the Zia regime. “A progressive era will come about very soon,” he hoped.

“Let’s decide to devote this new year to efforts against terrorism and extremism. We owe this to the Pakistanis who have lost their lives due to terrorism. a progressive,” he said.

Iqbal Lala said the silent majority in the country was supportive of peace, democracy, and freedom of expression. “Hate mongers and fanatics are in a minority yet they have made our lives so difficult over the years,” he regretted.

On court proceedings in the Mashal Khan murder case, he said, “From day one, I have pointed out the need to take action against those secret hands that orchestrated Mashal’s killing but the government has just arrested those who appeared in the videos. This does not fulfill the requirements of justice as far as I’m concerned.”

He held that the provincial government had not fulfilled promises made earlier in the case. “So far, 50 witness have been investigated since others have refused due to pressure. The government is not ready to provide security to them. Four men clearly identifiable in videos lynching Mashal have yet to be arrested. We demand that these four should be arrested as soon as possible,” he said.

Iqbal revealed that Mashal’s case proceedings were being held in the famous Bacha Khan ward in Haripur Jail where the ‘frontier Ghandi’ spent his prison days during the struggle against British raj.

However, Lala isn’t completely satisfied with the political party that claims to uphold Bacha Khan’s legacy. He said most of the ANP comrades were supporting him in the case, but there were still others in the party who were supporting some men with a suspicions role in the murder for the upcoming general elections.

“It means they are backtracking from Bacha Khan’s philosophy. This is not a good sign for those who want peace, non-violence and love. The real followers of the Baba should raise their voice against these people in the party,” He said.

“My son was also a part of the pro-peace students movement at the campus named after the great Khan Abdul Wali Khan. He was waging a non-violent struggle at the campus, raising voice for democracy, and human rights. He lost his life in that struggle.”

“My family has lost its Mashal. We have suffered the loss silently and with patience and perseverance. We don’t want any other family to go through what we have gone through,” he said.

“We are not fighting the legal battle to get revenge from the killers, but to establish an example for justice against extremism and terrorism in this country. Our Mashal will never come back. When we buried him under threat of a fundamentalist attack on the funeral day, we made a silent vow that we will defeat ideologies that breed extremism, hatred and fear.

“My only appeal to the government is to declare the year 2018 as a year against terrorism and extremism, because we don’t have strength in our shoulders to carry more coffins of young Pakistani men and women who want to live in a peaceful and just society. If we still don’t get serious about this disease that is killing our social fabric that will mean that we have learnt nothing from the loss of Mashal and thousands of other Pakistanis,” Lala said, ending the interview by reciting revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem:

Published in Daily Times, January 2^nd 2018.