Four-member committee to probe murder of college principal in Charsadda

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CHARSADDA: A four-member committee was constituted on Wednesday to probe the murder of the principal of a private college by a student on charges of blasphemy.

According to District Police Officer (DPO) Charsadda,  Zahoor Afridi, a grade 12 student Fahim on Monday opened fire at his principal Sareer in the college, killing him on the spot.

A grade 12 student, Faheem, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Islamia College in Shabqadar on Monday gunned down the college principal.

Police said that the student got disgruntled after the principal had expressed his anger at Faheem over his absence from college for three days due to latter’s reported participation in Faizabad sit-in.

FC personnel arrested the accused and handed him over to police. The Charsadda district court on Tuesday remanded the criminal to police custody for three days on Monday. After a short hearing, Judicial Magistrate-I Attaullah Jan handed his custody to the police.

Media sources report that Faheem had been angry at being marked absent for the days he was skipping classes to attend the Faizabad sit-in.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive topic in Pakistan, where more than often unproven allegations have stirred up mob violence and lynchings.

Last year, a mob in Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan beat up a student, Mashal Khan, to death after accusing him of blasphemy over social media.

The incident caused an outrage across the country, with calls for the blasphemy law to be amended. The investigation into Mashal’s murder was concluded after a joint investigation team probing the case cleared the victim of all charges.

At least 65 people have been murdered by vigilantes over blasphemy allegations since 1990.