Mashal Khan was beaten to death on Thursday by students and employees of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan-a city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
Abdullah, one of the three students accused of spreading "blasphemous content" by the mob that killed Mashal Khan, has rejected all allegations against him.
Pakistan police announced Monday they had arrested 22 people after the lynching of a university student accused of blasphemy, but observers said there was little hope authorities would secure convictions.
No case had been filed against the two students prior to the incident and police had not been investigating the two on blasphemy charges.
Blasphemy remains a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan and despite the law, many have been killed by angry mobs without being given a chance to appear before court. Khan's friend told The Express Tribune that the students attacked him before shooting him in the head and chest. "Twenty people were nominated initially in the FIR out of which 16 were arrested while six others were taken into custody in light of initial investigation", he added.
A mob of university students first surrounded Abdullah and forced him to recite verses from the Quran.
Graphic video footage from the crime scene showed dozens of men outside the dorm kicking and hurling projectiles at a body sprawled on the ground.
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Khan was "disliked by other students for being liberal and secular and not following a religious code of life and not attending Friday prayers", the official said. He was addressing a meeting in connection with Abdul Wali Khan University incident at regional police office (RPO) Mardan.
Meanwhile civil society in Peshawar held a protest against Mashal murder and demanded exemplary punishment for killers who are students and employees of University where Mashal used to study.
The report said the two students were also believed to be promoting the Ahmadi faith on Facebook by the mob.
Increasingly, however, right-wing vigilantes and mobs have taken the law into their own hands, killing at least 69 people over alleged blasphemy since 1990, according to a tally.
"After severe torture that led his death, the charged students then wanted to burn his body", Mardan's DIG Mohammad Alam Shinwari sadi, according to Reuters.
At Khan's funeral, the imam at the local mosque refused to read the last rights, according to Swabi resident Salman Ahmed.
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