Video Catches Mob That Killed Pakistani Student Celebrating
A video has surfaced online showing the mob that lynched to death a college student in Pakistan celebrating and patting each other on the back after the incident. The fatality, 23-year-old Mohammad Mashal Khan, was accused of committing blasphemy which he paid for with his life.
The incident happened Thursday last week while officials of Abdul Wali Khan University in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province heard the case of Khan and two other students. Violence broke out and the victim was shot twice and beaten to death while the two other accused escaped with injuries.
Authorities arrested 22 suspects consisting of 16 students and six university employees, who were identified based on security camera footages of the incident. In the video, Arif, the main suspect, is seen delivering a fiery speech to the killers and threatening that whoever reveals the shooter's name will be considered a traitor.
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One of Khan's teachers, Ziaullah Hamdard, was shocked to learn that university officials issued a notice branding his student as a blasphemer to justify what happened. A search conducted by authorities on the victim's dormitory room and residence did not yield any blasphemous material nor offensive posts on his social media accounts.
"After seeing that notification I was shocked. I thought these people have become so insensible and corrupt that they called my innocent student a blasphemer just to save the killers," Hamdard told the Nation. "After the incident they thought of creating an excuse to justify this killing."
Hamdard explained that he knew Khan personally as an intelligent student and a humanist who was inclined towards Sufism.
"He was not a blasphemer at all," he pointed out. "These professors who are top minds of the university reached such low level that they accused a student of being a blasphemer after he was martyred."
