Sri Lankan Factory Manager in Pakistan Beaten to Death by Mob For Alleged Blasphemy
13:33 GMT 03.12.2021 (Updated: 18:35 GMT 19.10.2022)
© Photo : YouTube/Urdu News Channel
Subscribe
Any perceived insult to Islam in Pakistan could be considered blasphemous which carries a potential death sentence. Besides the legal implications, there have been several incidents involving radicalised mobs torturing and killing people accused of blasphemy.
A Sri Lankan national working as the manager of a private factory in the Pakistani city of Sialkot was allegedly beaten to death by a mob of factory workers, according to several media reports. His corpse was then set on fire in an open space.
Sialkot City’s District Police Officer Umar Saeed Malik told local reporters that the murdered foreigner has been identified as Priyantha Diyawadana, who worked as export manager at Rajco Metal Industries which is a business which makes copper products.
According to witnesses, Diyawadana tore a poster off a wall and this was considered an “insult” to the Prophet by factory workers.
Reports have said that many people in the crowd also chanted slogans of banned Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan* (TLP) while killing and burning the man.
WARNING! The following video contains graphic material which may offend.
Warning: Strong Visuals.
— Hamza Azhar Salam (@HamzaAzhrSalam) December 3, 2021
A Sri Lankan factory manager in #Sialkot has been brutally murdered by a mob chanting slogans of Tehreek e Labbaik Pakistan. According to reports the mob made a false accusation blasphemy to justify the murder. #TLP was recently unbanned by the govt. pic.twitter.com/PZd1Eir8vS
The TLP is a banned extremist Islamist organisation which has been involved in violent protests against the government this year.
TLP protesters have demanded, among other things, the expulsion of the French Ambassador to Pakistan after France's president Emmanuel Macron defended the right to free speech in his country after the murder of French teacher Samuel Paty in October 2020.
Paty was beheaded by a teenager of Chechen origin for showing a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad in the classroom.
Despite being banned in Pakistan, the group’s Barelvi ideology is popular among an estimated half of the country's population.
Meanwhile, after the police reached the crime scene in Punjab Province's Sialkot city, they found it took several hours to calm the crowd down.
The police have refused to give any other details about the incident while an investigation is pending.
Punjab’s provincial chief Usman Buzdar, meanwhile, has described the incident as “very tragic”.
"Every aspect of the incident should be investigated and a report should be submitted. Action should be taken against those who take the law into their own hands," Buzdar has said.
I am extremely shocked at the horrific Sialkot incident. I have instructed IG Police to thoroughly investigate it. No one is allowed to take law in their hands. Rest assured, individuals involved in this inhumane act will not be spared!!
— Usman Buzdar (@UsmanAKBuzdar) December 3, 2021
