Khyber Pakhtun­khwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Saturday gave his go ahead to a judicial inquiry into the lynching of a student of the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, on Thursday.

KP government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani, while talking to DawnNews, said: “The chief minister has signed a summary from the Home and Tribal Affairs departments seeking a judicial probe into the incident,”

Ghani added that the summary will now be sent to the chief justice of Peshawar High Court for the the formation of a judicial committee.

“As soon as the chief justice forms the committee, it will start a probe,” he told DawnNews.

On Friday, during a session chaired by Deputy Speaker Dr Mahar Taj Roghani, the chief minister had responded to criticism by lawmakers who condemned Mashal Khan’s brutal death at the hands of a mob of students.

Khattak told the KP assembly that no evidence had been found to suggest Mashal had committed blasphemy.

"The mobile phone record of the victim has been checked by the police but there was nothing against Islam," he said.

“Since the occurrence of the incident, I am in contact with the inspector general of police and so far no evidence has emerged to show that blasphemy was committed by the victim,” he had said, adding that such brutality would not be tolerated.

“The government has already decided to conduct a judicial inquiry into this heinous crime,” he said, adding that such an incident should not have occurred and the government was worried about it.

Suspects remanded into police custody

A local Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Mardan on Saturday remanded the suspects caught so far in the lynching case to police custody

Police had produced eight individuals before the court and requested their physical remand for an investigation.

The ATC judge handed custody of the eight to police for a four-day physical remand.

The suspects were produced before the court amid high security.

Separately, the postmortem report received by police confirmed that Mashal had died because of a gunshot wound, while his body had been severely bruised.

'Killers a disgrace to students': UN condemns Mashal's murder

The United Nations on Saturday reacted strongly to the brutal murder of Mashal Khan and called on the Pakistani government to take ‘firm action’ and bring the perpetrators to justice.

In a statement, the UN termed the killers a disgrace to millions of students in Pakistan working for a better future in the principles of tolerance and social justice.

“Our thoughts remain with the victims and their families. We urge the authorities to take firm action and bring the perpetrators to speedy justice,” said Neil Buhne, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan.

He said Pakistan has strong legal institutions and it is unacceptable for anyone to take the law into their own hands.