A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Wednesday sentenced one person to death and gave life terms to five others for the brutal lynching of student Mashal Khan after he was falsely accused of blasphemy last year. Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student of journalism at Abdul Wali Khan University in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, was beaten and then shot dead by a mob after he was accused of blasphemy on April 13. A subsequent police investigation revealed that the accusation of blasphemy was false and that Khan was targeted for speaking out against corruption at the university. The court awarded capital punishment to prime accused Imran as evidence proved he had fired the fatal shots at Khan. Prosecution lawyers presented videos clips of the lynching during the trial as evidence that the suspects were involved in Khan’s murder.

Source: Hindustan Times February 07, 2018 12:56 UTC