Mashal lynching case: Prime suspect of sent on 14-days judicial remand

Muhammad Jamal Hoti

Mardan: Senior Civil Judge Mardan sent prime suspect of the Mashal Khan lynching case on 14-days judicial remand when he was presented before the honorable court here on Monday.

Firstly, the prime suspect identified as Arif Mardanvi was presented in the anti-terrorist court where he refused of the charges leveled against him in the FIR registered against him after occurrence of lynching of Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan last year.

Later, the relevant police officials presented the suspect in the court of senior civil judge Asim Riaz Khan and the honorable judge sent him on 14-days judicial remand when he did not plead guilty of his crime in the said court.

Earlier, the accused Arif Mardanvi was brought before court amid tight security so that to avoid any untoward incident on the occasion.

It is pertinent to mention here that the said accused who was arrested on last Thursday, was presented in the court of district and session judge Mardan on Friday and the court granted police three-days physical remand of the suspect which was completed on Monday. Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, was lynched on April 13, 2017 by an enraged mob for allegedly circulating blasphemous content on social media.

The prime suspect Arif Mardanvi had been absconding for over 10 months after occurrence of the lynching case and later went to Turkey.

The personnel of special police team arrested the suspect Arif Mardanvi, a tehsil councilor of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, in Chamtaar area on Thursday while he was waiting for somebody to go with him and hide from police. Sources said that the arrested suspect, Arif Mardanvi, was the person who in a video that surfaced on social media after the lynching case was seen warning a crowd to keep the name of real killer of Mashal secret. He had also declared in his video that Mashal deserved to be killed over allegations of blasphemy, which a joint investigation team later found to be false.