MARDAN – Abdul Wali Khan University, an institute in Mardan that witnessed the brutal murder of a journalism student, reopened on Monday (today) after closure of 40 days.
The university had been closed on April 13 after Mashal Khan was stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor of his hostel by a violent mob on April 13 after he was accused of blasphemy in the premises of the institute.
There is a complete ban on political activities of the students, while the university was monitoring the activities of the students closely, the university administration said.
Meanwhile, the police ran a search operation at the university’s hostel early Monday morning and recovered guns, pistols and knives, and seized drugs.
A resolution was passed on Mashal Khan’s chehlum, which was held on Sunday at a large gathering of family and friends as well as rights activists and members of civil society in his native town Zaida, in Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The resolution calls for trying the murder case in the military court.
Iqbal Khan, Mashal Khan’s father, emphasised on the occasion that extremism needed to be controlled to save “thousands of Mashal Khans” in the country.
The police have so far arrested 57 people suspected to be involved in Mashal’s killing.
The most recent was the arrest of Hammad, a student of Zoology at AWKUM.
On May 16, the police arrested a lecturer of Islamic Studies and two students.
Wajid, alias Malang, was a lecturer at a government degree college. Other suspects included students Jalal and Sajid.
According to the police, Wajid was the right-hand man of the main accused in the case, Arif, who was on the run and had also given a fiery speech before Mashal was murdered by a mob.
