[DAWN] Arif Khan, a primary suspect who had been absconding in the Mashal Khan murder case, was locked awayYez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
from Mardan on Thursday after nearly 10 months, police said.
In a video that surfaced after the Mardan university student was lynched in April 2017, Arif was seen warning a crowd to keep the name of the person who shot Mashal secret. He had also declared that Mashal deserved to be killed over allegations of blasphemy that a joint investigation team later found to be false.
"Whoever takes his [the shooter's] name will commit blasphemy. If you want to file an FIR, my name is Arif," he was heard saying in the video.
Arif, a Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is
Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) tehsil councillor, was arrested by a special operations team of police from Mardan's Ring Road Chamkar area, District Police Officer (DPO) Mian Saeed told DawnNewsTV. Sources said Arif had escaped to
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
and was arrested once he returned home only recently.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
used the opportunity to praise the "professional and depoliticised" Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police for arresting the suspect, who he acknowledged was a PTI councillor.
"I want to commend the KP police for succeeding in arresting the main accused in the Mashal Khan murder case, Arif Rangi, a PTI councillor," he wrote on Twitter, claiming that the arrest shows his ruling PTI does not politically influence the provincial law enforcement.