Peshawar: An Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf councilor Arif Khan and one other suspect Asad for their involvement in lynching Mashal. Two others namely Sabir and Izhar were acquitted.
Mashal Khan was a student of Mass Communication in Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) and he was lynched by a mob over alleged blasphemy accusation. Out of the total suspects, 57 were sentenced by a court in February 2018, the remaining four were sentenced today (Thursday).
The lynching took place within the premises of the university and was caught on video, which later circulated on social media. The horrific incident shocked the nation and sparked a debate over the misuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. A total of 61 people suspected of involvement in the lynching were charged in the first information report. Out of these, 57 were sentenced by a court on February 7, 2018.
Prime accused Imran Ali, who had confessed to shooting Mashal before a judicial magistrate, was sentenced last year on two counts to death by hanging.
He was handed a death sentence under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), and another death sentence along with a Rs100,000 fine under Section 7(1)(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Separately, he was awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 15 AA-KPK, along with a fine of Rs 50,000.