SWABI: The parents of Mashal Khan, who was killed by a mob at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, have said that their `cry is for peace, justice and education.

Mashal, 23, was a brilliant student of mass communication department of AWKU Mardan. He was killed by mob over allegation of blasphemy.

In a chat with Dawn here on Tuesday, Mohammad Iqbal, the father of the slain student, said that despite lapse of about two weeks the `tragic call` he received about the gory incident still echoed in his mind.

He said that it was about 5pm, a pleasant spring day on April 13, and Mashal`s mother was eagerly waiting for the arrival of her son from university when they were told about his murder.

`I suddenly received the most tragic call of my life from one of the woman relatives. She asl(ed me if I knew that my son was killed on the university premises by violent mob, he said in chocked voice while sitting in a charpoy at his hujra in Babukhel Mohalla of Zaida town.

Mr Iqbal, a smalltime trader, is a known poet of Pashto language and a diehard worker of Awami National Party.

His elder son Aimal Iqbal is in Pakistan Air Force. His daughter Storia Iqbal is a student of pharmacy department at University of Swabi and another daughter Saba Iqbal is a 10th grader at Pioneer Public School Marghuz.

Mashal received his primary education from Jinnah Model School in his native town Zaida. Later he went to Quaid-i-Azam School and passed his secondary school certificate (SCC) examination from there. He moved to Russia after completing FSc from ICMS College Hayatabad, Peshawar. Mashal was interested in becoming an engineer but he could not adjust in Russia and came back. Soon he got admission in AWKU Mardan.

`It was the harshest and most tortuous moment in my life.

The tragic call froze me. It became difficult for me to move, however, I tried my level best to control myself. I was struggling to hide this heartbreaking news from his mother. I knew she loved him too much and made a call to him a day earlier to ask when he would come home. Mashal had told her that he would come on Friday,` said Mr Iqbal.

He said that they received his cof fin on Thursday night in very precarious circumstances. `The environment was highly perturbed and a complete gloom prevailed all around us. We were in state of an unbelievable shock and shaken to the core,` he added Before the arrival of the coffin, the rumours mills were in full swing. There were reports that Mr Iqbal had refused to receive dead body of his son but his father said that he knew his son was a true lover of Islam and Holy Prophet (PBUH).

Speaking on the occasion, Mashal`s mother said as to why the campus of AWKU was stained with the blood of her son.

`Where was administration of the university? Where was varsity`s security? Where were police? Who fired the gunshots? How they brought arms to the university and who allowed them? A big question was that where was the humanity,` she questioned. She said that in fact humanity was dragged at Wali Khan`s University.