- ‘Mashal’s killing a clear wakeup call for every citizen who values diversity, protection from state’
As many 12 former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association, including Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and Asma Jahangir, on Monday expressed concerns over the brutal lynching and murder of Mashal Khan, a Mass Communication student of the Abdul Wali Khan University (AKWU) in Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The brutal manner in which the student was killed by his colleagues and attack on others have not only given pain and grief to the family of the deceased but the incident has traumatised and disturbed every sane person in Pakistan,” according to a statement issued here.
They said that the killing of Mashal Khan was a clear wakeup call for every citizen who values diversity and protection from the state. They said that more voices should severely condemn such brutal acts of violence. It is evident, from the reporting of this gruesome incident, that no one was safe from the rage of mobs that can be mobilised within no time to use the worst form of violence in the name of religion.
Abid Hassan Minto, Akram Sheikh, Qazi Muhammad Jameel, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, Muneer A Malik, Tariq Mehmood, Yaseen Azad, Kamran Murtaza and Syed Ali Zafar included in the statement to condemn the Mardan incident. In Mashal lynching case, the police personnel could not stop brutality at the campus despite their presence near the area of the incident, the leaders of the lawyers’ community pointed out.
They said that the government should not only ensure that the perpetrators of this and other such crimes were brought to justice but intolerance was strictly reprimanded in all centres of learning. “Stricter laws should be enacted and implemented against incitement to violence and exploitation on religious grounds,” they said.
They pointed out that the social media was full of hate messages that were ill-founded and continue to vilify and threat individuals. Regrettably, the fair name of religion was being misused even by those at the helm of prestigious institutions, which encourages others to follow suit, they said. “An atmosphere of fear is being purposely created to silence any criticism of exploitation of religion,” they said.
They said that it was now imperative to speak up against vigilantism or mob justice. “Equally important is to denounce the inability and reluctance of the government to check the rising trend of extremism in the society,” they said.