Journalism student beaten to death for “insulting Allah”
At least 45 people have been arrested after a mob beat a Pakistani student to death for allegedly expressing blasphemous views against Prophet Mohammed, Islam and Allah.
Mashal Khan was so brutalized his skull caved in, a video footage showed. Other reports say he was also shot.
Reuters reported that the mob stripped the journalism student naked and beat him till he died.
Burn his body!
“He was beaten with sticks, bricks and hands,” police official Niaz Saeed told AFP, adding that hundreds of people were involved in the attack.
Local police chief Mohammad Alam Shinwari said that the students wanted to burn Khan’s body after killing him, according to Reuters.
However, AFP cited university sources as saying he was instead thrown from the second floor of his student residency.
The incident took place at a college campus in the northern city of Mardan. Local media outlet Dawn published a video footage of the mob attack.
Teachers tried to save Khan
Reuters reported that Khan was beaten after writing social media posts which were deemed blasphemous.
A source, however, told AFP that the incident occurred not because of social media posts, but because Khan had gotten into a debate about religious views on Thursday. The argument reportedly became so heated that teachers had to lock Khan in a room for his safety.
“But the enraged students grew to a mob and they attacked the room,” the source said.
Anti blasphemy heroes
Blasphemy is an extremely serious accusation in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and at least 65 people have been murdered over such allegations since 1990. Insulting the Prophet Muhammad is punished as a capital crime, and hundreds are currently on death row for allegedly doing so.
Khan’s killing comes amid international calls to release Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death in 2010 for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad after an argument with a group of Muslim women.
Those who stand up against alleged blasphemy are often hailed as heroes in Pakistan. In 2011, a bodyguard assassinated Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer after the politician called for blasphemy law reforms. The killer, who was put to death last year, has been dubbed a martyr to Islam by religious hard-liners, and a shrine has been erected at his grave.
Source: RT
