Mashal Khan Incident: What We Learned At What Cost!

File photo of Mashal Khan.

There is a Pashto proverb “che rakhtia razi darogho ba kalay wran karay ye” which means, by the time truth is known, lies will have destroyed the village. Lies killed Mashal Khan  before anyone could know the truth.

KP’s IG Police Salahuddin Khan Mehsud told a press conference today that no evidence of blasphemy was found against the accused and vowed to bring all the perpetrators to justice. On the other hand, Mashal’s friends have recorded their statements revealing shocking hidden truth that even implicate university administration in this whole saga.

This gory act of lynching, torturing, and murdering was not undertaken by some uneducated terrorists but a highly educated cream of our society. Undoubtedly, it has put our lofty heads in shame. It tells us a lot about our education system and the kind of mindset we’re producing.

Mashal Khan’s “brutal” killing is a fact. Everyone watched videos of his inhuman lynching. Yet, many among us kept on writing spiteful comments on the assumption that he might have done something.

Do we need to ban our borders and or condemn America for their Muslim ban after this? Doesn’t Mashal’s killing show us a hot-headed, extremist and ignorant nation?

Within the past three days however, much progress has been made in this case and many of the fabricated stories about the departed soul have been exposed. Not only common people but religious figures like Maulana SamiulHaq, Mufti Naeem, and Maulana Taqi Usmani have condemned Mashal’s murder.

Such strong condemnations, pro-Mashal posts and protests on social media and around different cities helped changed views of many. People have now started speaking openly against extremist mindset, that is perhaps the only positive aspect that we can see about this incident.

Today, it is not only Mashal’s family that is heart-broken over their beloved son’s death, but many other parents too who never taught their sons to be such vicious murderers. It was not just an angry crowd that killed Mashal, infact it was the mindset and the exponents of such mindset that killed him.

Mashal Khan’s killing has taught us much but unfortunately at the expense of his life. It taught us what ignorance, intolerance and lack of realization can do to people. His murder makes us realize that a wild beast lives inside many among us that must not be allowed to roam freely in any civilized society. Sanity has to prevail, and we can’t wait for another Mashal to be killed for that to happen.