They have turned off a lamp

A teacher has described the moment he was turned on by a Pakistani mob as it lynched a liberal student in a deadly attack which has triggered shock, outrage and fear across the country.

Hundreds of men attacked journalism student Mashal Khan last Thursday, stripping, beating and shooting him before throwing him from the second floor of his hostel at the Abdul Wali Khan university in the northwestern town of Mardan.

Khan had been known for his liberal views, especially on Facebook, sparking blasphemy allegations against him.

Yesterday, one of Khan's teachers, Ziaullah Hamdard, told the private Geo TV channel that he had been called to the scene at the university's journalism department where students were shouting slogans against Khan and another student, Abdullah.

One university employee threatened to kill Khan and cut him into pieces, Hamdard said. Then the mob began kicking in the door to a washroom where Abdullah had taken refuge.

Police had arrived and managed to yank a wounded Abdullah to safety, he told Geo. At the sight of blood and the crowd, he added, "I lost my courage".

He rushed to the staff hostel, but around 20 students were already there, and they accused him of hiding Khan, abused him physically and locked him in a room. Hamdard was rescued by another teacher, he said, and spirited away by police -- but by then Khan, who had been hiding in his own room at a nearby student hostel, was dead.

"Mashal was a Diya (lamp). They have turned off a lamp," Hamdard told Geo. He apologised to Khan's parents for failing to protect their son, and said his guilt had driven him to resign.