Key eyewitness in Mashal lynching case pardons man threatening him

MARDAN - A key eyewitness in Mashal Khan lynching case forgave the man sending him threatening messages after police arrested him.

On March 3, Zia Ullah Hamid took to Facebook and complained of being threatened by a relative of one of the suspects in the case. He claimed he was being coerced to withdraw from that case as a witness.

He wrote,  “It is to inform the Media, Police, FIA, MI, ISI and other state authorities that I am receiving threats online. I have forwarded the messages to DIG Mardan and will soon register an FIR with FIA cybercrime. I don’t have any personal enmity with anyone, except being a key witness in Mashal Khan’s murder case”.

He added,"It was my moral obligation to report what I had witnessed and I will never refrain from speaking the truth, no matter what. I was born into a poor family, but not the family of cowards".

Hamdard was a lecturer at Department of Journalism at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, who resigned after his student Mashal Khan was lynched to death by a mob accusing him of blasphemy.

After his complaint, police took action and arrested the accused with his family, Hamdar said in his another post on his Facebook wall. He added that he forgave the accused after elders and jirga members intervention.

"I have registered a complaint with FIA, and police took timely action and traced the person, picked up his family, but soon they were on the defensive, involved elders and jirga memebers who assured me, it was a queer sort of misunderstanding. The person also said he misread me and had wrong information about me and apologized. As per our Pashtoon traditions, I forgave the person on the surety of his elders," he said.

He thanked DIG and DPO Mardan for their timely action, adding, "I have taken a stance for the sake of our future generations/Mashals and I hope together we can save them from becoming victims of use of religion for personal interests...".

Mashal Murder Case

Mashal, a journalism student of Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, was lynched on April 13 last year by a violent mob on allegations of committing blasphemy, however, investigators found no proof of blasphemy and ruled that the murder was politically motivated.

On Feb 7, ATC Judge Fazal Subhar while announcing the verdict in the heavily guarded Haripur Central Jail imposed the death penalty on Imran Ali, who had confessed to shooting Mashal. The court sentenced five suspects to 25 years in jail and 25 others are to be jailed for three years.

The ATC had acquitted 26 accused in the case due to lack of evidence against them. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has announced to file a review petition against the release of 26 accused.

A total of 57 persons were indicted in the case after being arrested by the police. However, four suspects, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf councilor Arif, head of a student group Sabir and a varsity employee Asad Zia are still at large. The court has declared all the four suspects absconders in the case.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/phc-suspend-conviction-of-25-suspects-in-mashal-khan-murder-case/

On Feb 27, a bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) suspended the conviction of 25 suspects in Mashal Khan murder.