The Senior Civil Judge Mardan on Saturday sent Sabir Mayar, the accused in the Mashal Khan murder case, on judicial remand to Mardan central prison after he denied involvement in the crime, police said.
On 18th March Sabir Mayar turned himself in to the police at the office of the District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Mian Saeed Ahmad. Later on local police presented Sabir Mayar before the anti-terrorist court (ATC). The ATC judge Mohammad Yunus Khan judge handed over the accused to the police on four days remand. On Saturday the police presented the accused in the anti-terrorism court (ATC) where the accused denied his involvement in the crime. Later the police presented accused before Senior Civil Judge Asim Riaz, he denied involvement the crime, and the senior civil judge then sent him to the Mardan jail on judicial remand.
With the arrest of Sabir Mayar the numbers of the accused arrested in the Mashal case have reached 60. However, one accused Asad Katlang is still at large. On April 13, 2017, a mob of students, employees of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan and outsiders lynched journalism student Mashal Khan after accusing him of committing blasphemy.
Later on Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the incident and on the orders of a SC a 13-member joint investigation team was formed to probe the case. On 3rd June, the JIT completed its report and submitted it in the court. The report exposed alleged incompetence of the university administration, failure of the police and presence of criminal mindset in the ranks of Pakhtun Students Federation (PkSF).
According to the JIT report, Mashal Khan, a brilliant student of journalism with deep insight of the student rights and matters pertaining to the university administration, used to speak openly about the administrative problems and other issues in the university. Days before his brutal murder, he set up a protest camp outside the university to press the government for early resolution of various problems in the university, especially appointment of vice-chancellor. The JIT in its report clearly mentioned that scores of employees of the university had criminal record in the past. It was suggested in the report that strict departmental action should be taken against the Registrar Sher Alam Khan, Director Administration Pir Asfandyar, Security Officer Himayatullah Afridi, Provost Fayaz Ali Shah, Chief Proctor Idress, Director Sports Farooq Khan and Assistant Registrar Humayun for their incompetence. The report also called for scrutinizing record of all the employees.
On the other hand, sources in the university said that a lot of irregularities were made in admission procedure, especially in the Journalism and Mass Communication Department in the first batch. The sources added that administration of the same department gave admission to government officials without any No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the parent department and also violated merit in the admission procedure. Source added that the government employees also got admission in the same department through fake documents with the connivance of the department administration.
After passage of several days of the incident of Mashal Khan murder, the provincial government on demand of local administration appointed Dr Jahanzeb Khalil as pro-vice chancellor of the university. Sources in the university said that the government gave task to the pro vice chancellor to strictly act on the recommendations of the JIT report. However, after his appointment, Dr Jahanzeb made a few transfers and adjustments in the administration and has not fully acted on the JIT recommendations. Later on provincial government appointed Dr Khurshid Khan vice chancellor of the university.
It may be noted that when the JIT report came on media, parents of the suspects arrested in Mashal Khan murder case, Pakhtun Students Federation (PkSF), and religious parties of the district had rejected the JIT report and declared it one sided. Later on an anti-terrorism court in Haripur jail announced the verdict in Mashal lynching case on February 7. The court awarded death sentence to one accused identified as Imran, two-time life imprisonment (50 years) to three accused including Fazle Raziq, Mujeebullah and Ashfaq Khan. The ATC judge also awarded three-time life imprisonment (75 years) to two accused, Mudassir Bashir and Bilal Bakhsh, and four-year sentence to 25 accused. The court acquitted 26 of the accused in the case with observation that the prosecution had not been able to prove their involvement in any act of violence or aggression. However, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on February 27 suspended the four-year sentence of 25 accused and granted bail to them.