Daily Times

MARDAN: Police on Thursday arrested Izhar alias Johnny, one of the last few suspects who hitherto remained at large from the Saddar area of the city upon intelligence reports.

According to details, Izhar is one of the suspects involved in the lynching of Mashal Khan on April 13 last year on unfounded blasphemy charges. The investigators had stated in their report later on that the murder was planned and politically motivated since no proof of blasphemy had been found after the forensic analysis of Mashal’s social media accounts.

The arrest was made by the police as announced by District Police Officer (DPO) of Mardan Mian Saeed, who said that Izhar was wanted to the police since April. He told that the police had arrested 58 suspects involved in the gruesome lynching but three of still remained absconding.

Mashal Khan’s father Muhammad Iqbal had recorded his statement on the last hearing of the case in an anti-terror court on December 14. He has repeatedly stated that he and his family were being pressured by the suspects and feared that a fair trial might not be possible.