How they murdered Mashal

It is now clear that the inhuman lynching of Mashal Khan at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan was a conspiracy and could also involve campus politics. Those arrested and named in the case include employees and officials of the university, a PTI local councillor, members of the ANP’s Pakhtun Students Federation – the largest political presence on the campus – and some teachers and professors. For those familiar with what goes on in the name of student politics in our universities, it is clear what the nature of administration and management would be when the campus is ruled by one political group. Mashal, a bright young student of progressive bent, had been a part of the PSF and was said to have displeased not just the university’s ‘mainstream’ PSF leadership but also those of the ISF of the PTI and the IJT of the Jamaat-e-Islami. What has now come to light is that members of all these organisations participated in the inhuman act. Mashal had been very critical of the way the university was being run by the administration and had lambasted its hostility and aggression. So he became a target of a long chain of corruption and crime that comprised elements from every segment of the university. The fake Facebook page using his profile was part of the conspiracy to concoct allegations of blasphemy against him, which continued even after he had been eliminated in the form of the university notification against him and two other students. The revelations by one of Mashal’s teachers, the statement to the police by Mashal’s friend Abdullah who was critically injured in the same incident, and the confession by one of the accused in the case make clear the management and the teachers’ role in provoking the mob and causing the murder. Questions must also be raised about the role of the police that day. But this will still appear to be only the tip of the iceberg. We know from experience that, in such a case, an investigation can either discover or distort the whole picture. What is it going to be this time around?

How did we get to a place where something so horrific can happen? The fact is that the fires of hatred were inflamed and encouraged by a narrative already in place. Who can deny that this atmosphere of hate and fanaticism has been created by religion of politics and politics of religion? The process has involved not only right-wing ‘religious’ parties and groups but also politicians of other hues, and the state itself. The process is all-encompassing and includes many in the media. The sum-total of all this is a powerful ideologisation of intimidation, abduction, torture and murder. In a brutalised society, conspiracies hatched to generate frenzy and lead a mob of young men to maul a peer to death can shake you to the bones, but they cannot surprise you. It is now up to the Supreme Court to inquire into this case. We have seen in the past how such cases have not come to much. To prove our humanity to ourselves, can we expect a difference this time? The case should be far more important than anything else at the moment. We don’t expect much from politicians and parties. Criminal hypocrisy in such matters has always been a common thread running through them all. In one way or the other, they have all been part of the hate narrative – either out of fear or political expediency. We will now be expected to forget Mashal in the coming rush of other ‘breaking news’. Can the civil society, our teachers, students and rank-and-file activists, be seen as candidates to keep this case alive? Because beyond the more immediate case is the much more difficult task of fixing a ‘society’ that has started devouring its own children.