Sri Lanka welcomes death sentence to six accused for lynching its national in Pakistan

Sri Lanka has welcomed the death sentence imposed by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court on six people involved in the lynching case of a Sri Lankan national over alleged blasphemy.

Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry welcomed the verdict by the Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore that sentenced six people to death and varying jail terms to 81 others on April 18 for their involvement in the brutal murder of 47-year-old Priyantha Kumara.

Kumara was a general manager at a private garment factory in Pakistan's Sialkot district, some 100 kms from Lahore.

A mob of over 800 men, including supporters of radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, attacked a garment factory and lynched its general manager Kumara and burned his body over allegations of blasphemy on December 3.

The incident shocked the two nations and the leadership of Pakistan assured Sri Lanka that the culprits would be brought to book and justice would prevail, a statement from the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, the Daily News Sri Lanka reported on Friday.

The Sri Lankan Parliament, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had condemned the brutal killing and expressed hope that the Pakistan government would bring the guilty to justice.

A financial grant was handed over to the family of Kumara by Foreign Minister G L Peiris on December 5, 2021. Peiris had then said that he had requested the Pakistan Government to ensure timely receipt of financial benefits from Kumara's employer and the Pakistan government.

Pakistan's business community had handed over a donation of USD 100,000 to Kumara's wife and the factory owner had promised to give the victim's salary of USD 1,650 to his family every month.

Kumara had gone to Pakistan in 2011 after he got a job as a mechanical engineer at an apparel factory in Faisalabad. After a year, he joined Sialkot’s Rajco Industries as its general manager and was the only Sri Lankan national working in the factory.

Some factory employees had accused Kumara of tearing a poster of TLP inscribed with Islamic verses during his inspection of machines in the factory after which the mob dragged him out of the factory, brutally beat him and killed him before setting the body on fire.

After Kumara's murder, some 200 suspects were taken into custody. However, over 100 of them were subsequently released after no evidence of their involvement in the incident was found.

Pakistan has extremely strict blasphemy laws against defaming Islam, including the death penalty, and rights campaigners say they are often used to settle scores in the Muslim majority country.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)