A key suspect of shooting student Mashal Khan confessed to his crime before a senior civil judge in Mardan on Saturday. The confession was submitted in the form of a statement to Judge Arbab Sohail Hamid. Imran, who police said was responsible for shooting Mashal Khan, was nabbed earlier this week. In his statement before the court, Imran alleged that the university administration of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan (AWKUM) was also involved in the case.

His confession came two days after Mardan's Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Mohammad Alam Shinwari announced his arrest. The DIG said Ali was Khan's class fellow and a student in the university's journalism department. He added that the pistol with which was used in shooting had also been recovered and the suspected had "accepted his crime" during investigation and interrogation.

Ali, who hails from the Palai area of the Malakand division, was produced before the media with his face concealed with a piece of cloth. In his statement, Imran, son of Sultan, said he had first met Mashal in 2014 at the Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) where they were both studying. He maintained that he had tried to distance himself from Mashal because the latter advocated secularism and atheism.

On the day of the murder, he reached the university and found an angry mob trying to kill Mashal. Imran added that he too wanted to murder Mashal like the other students in the mob."I went to my room, took my pistol and went looking for him. I found him running from the mob and shot him," the statement read. Imran also held the university's administration responsible for the incident. "If they [the administration] had expelled Mashal, it wouldn't have led to such a situation," he added. "The university's administration comprises incompetent employees who have been appointed on the basis of nepotism."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017