Everything that needs to be said about Mashal has already been said. He was gone too soon.
He was a bright boy meant for big things.
He became a symbol of grief.
He was a beacon whose life was written short.
This has all been said but somehow it is not enough. (1/)

Mashal was not gone. He was taken. Snatched.
He did not die. He was killed. Murdered.
Mashal was not a beacon of hope. He IS a beacon of hope, but one we do not deserve.
He should not be a symbol of only grief. He should be a symbol of the ways in which we failed him (2/)

Words fail us even today, on his third death anniversary.
It is our third year without him. It is his family’s third year of a life without their beloved son. It is the third year of misery and grief that is only remembered when convenient. (3/)

It is three years and still people do not know, or they choose not to. They say
“He was a bright boy but what he did was not right”
“He frequently spoke against Islam, it was only a matter of time”
“It is tragic, but there is a reason it happened”.
(4/)

We all hear this and do not speak back because we don’t know enough.
Today, we know, and we will try to tell you. In the hopes that you open your minds and your hearts in remembering a boy that was too good for this world, and this nation.
(5/)

Mashal Khan studied Journalism at the Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan. He called himself a humanist, always concerned about the wellbeing of both people and animals. He spoke out frequently against injustices, especially the corruption and incompetence of his University.(6/)

He wrote poetry. He read ardently. He felt deeply.
But this was too much for the people around him. He was claimed to have committed blasphemy. Having “liberal” inclinations. Having “sympathy for the communists”.
He was said to have criticised Islam on several occasions. (7/)

This was the last straw. He was marked out. He was bruised and battered and left unrecognisable.
An alleged 200 people were involved in his torture and lynching.
One was sentenced to death. Many others to several sentences.

His accounts of blasphemy were proved false. (8/)

The boy who felt so much was made to feel so much pain in his last moments.
In that moment, and every moment following, it was not just those 200 people to blame. Not just those that laid their hands on him.
It was me and you. It was all of us.
We failed Mashal. (9/)

We failed Mashal, and have continued to fail him every day since that horror 3 years ago.
We fail him when we do not stand up for truth. For what is right. When we side with terror. With extremism. With hate. We fail him every moment we choose to stay silent. (10/)

We leave you with this Mashal.
One that celebrates Pakistan day, and loves a nation that was not to love him as he deserved.
We see him love a nation that did not deserve him.
We see him love that which was ungrateful.
We see him love.
And we spoke back with hate.
(11/)

We will be starting a hashtag by #MessagesForMashal where we encourage you all to share anything you’d like to say to Mashal, or speak about this incident.
In the hopes of remembering him, and in the hopes of giving back the love he more than deserved.
End of thread.