Officials say police have arrested 13 suspects and detained dozens of others in the lynching of a Sri Lankan employee at a sports equipment factory in eastern Pakistan
A mob of hundreds of enraged Muslims descended on the factory in the district of Sialkot in Punjab province Friday after the Sri Lankan manager of the factory was accused of blasphemy.
The mob grabbed Priyantha Kumara, lynched him and publicly burned the body, according to police. Factory workers accused the victim of desecrating posters bearing the name of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Punjab police chief Rao Sardar said Saturday that investigators arrested prominent suspects after seeing their clear role on video in instigating workers to violence, killing the manager and dragging his body outside, and taking selfies with his burning body and proudly admitting what they did.
Sardar, in his initial report to authorities, said the victim had asked the workers to remove all stickers from factory machines before a foreign delegation arrived. It said the incident started at around 11 a.m. and 3 constables reached the factory to control the situation shortly after.
Hassan Khawar, spokesman for the Punjab government, said the provincial police chief was personally overseeing the investigation.
Khurram Shahzad, a police official in Sialkot district, said 123 suspects were detained in ongoing raids.
The lynching was widely condemned by Pakistan's military and political leadership, prominent social and religious figures and civil society members.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sugeeswara Gunaratne said Friday that Sri Lanka's embassy in Islamabad was verifying details of the incident with Pakistani authorities.
In the conservative society of Pakistan mere allegations of blasphemy invite mob attacks. The country's blasphemy law carries the death penalty for anyone found guilty of the offense.
Friday’s attack came less than a week after a Muslim mob burned a police station and four police posts in northwestern Pakistan after officers refused to hand over a mentally unstable man accused of desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran. No officers were hurt in the attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Pakistan’s government has long been under pressure to change the country’s blasphemy laws, which Islamists strongly resist.
A Punjab governor was shot and killed by his own guard in 2011 after he defended a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy. She was acquitted after spending 8 years on death row and, following threats, left Pakistan for Canada to join her family.
Source: The Associated press, Staff, December 4, 2021
Pakistan Mob Kills Sri Lankan Man Over Blasphemy Accusations
A Muslim mob in eastern Pakistan lynched a Sri Lankan man Friday before burning his body for allegedly insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Police identified the victim as Priyantha Kumara, saying he was working as an export manager at a private sports equipment factory in Sialkot, an industrial city in the country’s most populous Punjab province.
A co-worker reportedly accused the slain foreigner of desecrating and removing posters from factory walls bearing the name of the Prophet Muhammad before informing others about the alleged blasphemy act.
Witnesses and area police officers said factory workers quickly gathered in large numbers and fatally attacked Kumara inside the facility.
“They later dragged his body to a nearby road and torched it,” Hasaan Khawar, the Punjab government spokesman, told reporters, while sharing details of the incident.
He said police had launched a high-level investigation into the attack and sent Kumara’s body to a local hospital for autopsy.
Police said they had already rounded up more than 100 people in connection with the violence and security camera video was being used to identify other suspects.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said, “the horrific vigilante attack” was a “day of shame for Pakistan.” Khan said he was personally overseeing the investigations and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.
The horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot & the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations & let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. Arrests are in progress — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 3, 2021
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa denounced Kumara's “cold blooded murder” as extremely condemnable and shameful.
“Such extra-judicial vigilantism cannot be condoned at any cost. (The) COAS directs all-out support to civil administration to arrest perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to justice,” said an army statement.
Amnesty International said in a statement it was “deeply alarmed by the disturbing lynching” of the Sri Lankan factory manager over blasphemy accusations. The rights advocacy group demanded Pakistan conduct an independent and prompt investigation into the incident to hold the perpetrators accountable.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive matter in the predominantly Muslim nation and mob attacks on alleged blasphemers are common, but such violence against foreigners is extremely rare.
Insulting Islam or the Prophet Muhammad carries the death penalty in Pakistan, where mere blasphemy allegations often provoke mob violence and lynching of suspects.
Critics of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws say accusations of insulting Islam are often used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal scores in the country.
Earlier this week, a mob of thousands of people stormed and burned a police station in the northwestern Pakistani city of Charsadda in an abortive attempt to grab and lynch a mentally unstable detainee accused of desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.
Last month, the United States designated Pakistan, along with 9 other countries, as violators of religious freedom, for “having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
The U.S. State Department compiles an annual list of such countries. Other nations listed this year are Russia, China, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Eritrea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Pakistan rejected the designation as “arbitrary” and the outcome of a “selective assessment,” saying it was against the realities on the ground and raised “serious doubts about the credibility” of the U.S. exercise.
Source: voanews.com, Staff, December 4, 2021
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