Abdul Wali Khan University to reopen after Mashal’s death

By
Ashraf Khaan
AWKUM closed on April 13 after the murder of Mashal Khan 

MARDAN:  Over a month after the murder of Mashal Khan, the main campus of the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AKUM) will be reopened on May 22 (Monday). This was decided at a meeting of the syndicate committee that took place on Friday, according to sources.

However, Garden Campus, in which the university's student Mashal Khan was killed, will be reopened on May 25, while classes at Shankar campus will start from May 24, officials present at the meeting decided.

AWKUM closed on April 13 after the murder of Mashal.

The decision to open the campuses in phases has been taken due to security concerns.

On May 16, the police arrested three more suspects, including a lecturer of Islamic Studies, in Mashal's lynching case.

Wajid, alias Malang, was a lecturer at a government degree college. Other suspects included students Jalal and Sajid.

According to the police, Wajid was the right-hand man of the main accused in the case, Arif, who was on the run and had also given an incendiary speech before Mashal was murdered by a mob.

Mashal, a journalism student at AWKUM, was stripped, beaten, shot, and thrown from the second floor of his hostel by a violent mob on April 13 which had accused him of blasphemy.