'Mashal wasn’t only my brother, he was also my best friend and teacher'

 

Mashal Khan’s sister spoke to Geo News about her brother, a journalism student at the Abdul Wali Khan University. Here is a transcript of the interview:

My brother, Mashal Khan, was a nice personality. Education was important to him. He used to say that life should not be without education. He would always carry a pen and a book in his hand.

This is his room. He would sit here regularly to write.

I remember that he used to say, “small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events.”

Education was his heart and soul. When he would come home, he would sit down to teach us as well. He was not just my brother. He was my best friend, my teacher. He would explain things to me, which even my teachers had trouble explaining.

Ignore what people are saying, Mashal would tell us. Do what you want to do. He would say, “I stand alone. I don’t care what people would think about me.”

What happened to him was an injustice. It is terrorism because he was a broad-minded person. This should have never happened.

The last time I saw Mashal, he was getting ready to leave home. He advised me to always be respectful and honour our parents. He told me to stand on my own two feet and do something so the world takes notice.

One of my last questions to him was, “What is your aim?”

“What is your aim?” he asked.

I told him that I wanted to win a gold medal. He said mine was not to win a gold medal but instead to bring home a Nobel Prize.

Those were his last words to me.

If you respect your parents and concentrate on your education, you will become the best girl in the world, he said.

 

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23-year-old journalism student at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mashal Khan was brutally murdered by an angry mob which accused him of blasphemy.