Mashal Khan, a student who was lynched for blasphemy, never uttered an offensive word towards the prophet, this according to the official joint report by Pakistani police and intelligence agencies.
The Supreme Court had ordered the probe to shed light on one of the most violent episodes in the history of modern Pakistan.
The report notes that the death of Mardan University student was the result of a plot orchestrated by faculty members and student rivals who wanted to punish him for daring to complain about widespread corruption.
Relieved by the conclusions, Mashal’s father, Muhammad Iqbal, said that the findings had vindicated his son. “This proves my son was not a blasphemer,” he said. On 13 April (Maundy Thursday), the 23-year-old student was stripped, beaten, and killed. After he died, a mob desecrated his body with kicks, punches and sticks. The killing was instigated by members of Khan’s own Pakhtun Students Federation, who felt threatened by his growing prominence as a critic of rising fees and alleged corruption at the university, as well as by the institution’s staff.
“Unfortunately, blasphemy charges have been used all too frequently to settle even smaller scores, [but] So great is the emotional wave around a blasphemy case that it often results in riots, making an honest inquiry next to impossible,” says an editorial in The Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English language daily newspaper.
