PM Nawaz 'shocked, saddened' over Mashal Khan's murder
The nation should stand united to condemn this crime, Nawaz Sharif remarked.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Two days after Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, was lynched by a violent mob, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif remarked that he was ‘shocked and saddened by the senseless display of mob justice that resulted in the murder of a young student’.
He said: “Let it be known to the perpetrators of this act that the state shall not tolerate citizens taking the law in their own hands.”
The Prime Minister further stated that police have been directed to apprehend those responsible.
“No father should have to send his child off to be educated, with the fear of having him return in a coffin. The nation should stand united to condemn this crime and to promote tolerance and rule of law in the society,” he added.
PHOTO OF MASHAL KHAN
Earlier today, eight suspects who brutally murdered Mashal Khan, a journalism student, over his liberal views were charged with murder and terrorism. They were presented before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Mardan.
Khan was stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor of his hostel at the Abdul Wali Khan university on Thursday by a large mob.
So far a total of 12 people have been arrested over the incident and police are hunting for more suspects.
Mushtaq Ghani, Information Minister of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said the government had also requested Peshawar High Court to conduct a judicial probe into the incident.
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Students had previously complained to university authorities about Khan’s alleged secular and liberal views and Khan had been in a heated debate during a class the day he was killed.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has urged that all those involved in the lynching be brought to justice.
Also, PM s daughter Maryam Nawaz also condemned the brutal lynching of Mashal Khan in Mardan through her Twitter account.
Shocked to see Mashal Khan killing video. Vigilantism &mob justice are indicative of regressive & putrid mindset. Is that what we stand for?
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) April 15, 2017
Images of brutal killing of two brothers in Sialkot years ago still haunts & now #MashalKhan. Do we want to be known as benighted nation?
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) April 15, 2017
... with inputs from AFP
