Pakistani police say they have arrested 22 suspects in the lynching of a university student who was accused of blasphemy.

Salahuddin Mehsud, police chief for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Monday that the 16 students and six university employees are believed to have incited or taken part in the mob that killed 23-year-old Mohammad Mashal Khan last week.

The student was beaten and shot to death at a university in the northwestern city of Mardan on Thursday.

Pakistan had recently vowed to combat the sharing of blasphemous material on social media.