A journalism student of a top university in Pakistan was mercilessly beaten and then shot dead by a vigilante mob of students from the same varsity, supecting him of publishing blasphemous content online and promoting the Ahmadi faith, police said on Thursday.
Mashal Khan, who studied journalism at the Abdukl Wali Khan University in Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was suspected by the mob of running Facebook pages that published blasphemous content, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Alam Shinwari said.
Khan was assaulted by a large group of students and appears to have succumbed to a gunshot wound, the DIG was quoted as saying in the Dawn newspaper.
Another student, Abdullah, was injured in the clashes.
The report said the two students were also believed to be promoting the Ahmadi faith on Facebook by the mob.
A mob of university students first surrounded Abdullah and forced him to recite verses from the Quran. Although he repeatedly denied he was an Ahmadi, the students beat him nonetheless.
The police, when alerted, reached the varsity and rescued Abdullah, after which the mob set its sights on Khan, who was in the hostel at the time, an eyewitness told the newspaper.
Khan was beaten and shot by the mob. A video footage of the incident showed Khan lying on the ground surrounded by men, who beat him mercilessly with sticks. A student requesting anonymity claimed that several leaders of the university’s student bodies were part of the mob.
University administration official Fayaz Ali Shah confirmed that the mob had accused Khan of blasphemy before killing him. He said an investigation is underway.
Hostel warden Muhammad Ali claimed that: “Three to four thousand students were approaching. I was alerted that they were approaching, so I closed the gates but they broke in, found Mashal and fired at him and started beating him.”