More than 100 people have been arrested in Pakistan after a Sri Lankan factory manager was killed and set on fire by a gang accusing him of blasphemy.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan called the attack “a day of shame for Pakistan” and said he had spoken to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa about the matter.
In Pakistan, even the slightest hint of insult to Islam can trigger protests and lynching.
Khan promises that those responsible for the murder will be prosecuted.
The incident happened on Friday in Sialkot, a district located in Punjab province. There, local police have said that there were rumors that Priyantha Diyawadana had torn down a religious poster and thrown it in a trash can.
Took selfies with burnt body
Tahir Ashrafi, a special representative of Prime Minister Imran Khan on religious harmony issues, confirmed that more than 100 people had been arrested. He says that employees at the factory, which makes sports equipment, had complained that Diyawadana was a very strict boss.
– Police are investigating this case from various angles, including from a point of view that some factory workers played a religious card to take revenge on the boss, Ashrafi says.
–Video footage shared on social media shows a gang beating Priyantha Diyawadana, while shouting slogans against blasphemy. Other footage shows that his body is set on fire, and an overturned car that should have belonged to him.
Many of those present made no attempt to hide their identities, and some even took selfies in front of the burning corpse.
No one intervened
About 800-900 people dragged the body behind, according to Hasaan Khawar, a spokesman for the Punjab provincial government. He says that the autopsy has been carried out and that the remains have been left to the Sri Lankan authorities.
Lawyer Malik Nasem Awam, who lives in Sialkot, says he is concerned about how the case could damage the country’s reputation.
– I’m not able to say how embarrassed I am. It would have been different if someone did this as an individual, but here a whole crowd was present and watched, without trying to save him, the lawyer says.
Almost all of the country’s political and religious parties have condemned the incident.
The President of Sri Lanka is shocked by the killing and asks Pakistan to punish anyone who has been involved in the case.
Amnesty concerned
“Amnesty is deeply concerned about the brutal lynching and assassination of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot, allegedly as a result of blasphemy allegations,” Amnesty International said. Twitter.
Amnesty asks the Pakistani authorities to immediately launch an independent, impartial and speedy investigation to hold the perpetrators accountable.
– The incident underlines the urgency of correcting an environment that facilitates abuse and which puts lives in danger, Amnesty writes.
Accusations of blasphemy are often used as an excuse to take revenge on someone, and minorities are greatly affected, according to human rights groups.
Last Sunday, thousands of people set fire to a police station in Charsadda in the northwest of the country after demanding that the police hand over a man who was accused of burning the Koran.
In April 2017, university student Mashal Khan was lynched by an angry mob who accused him of publishing blasphemous content online.
In 2014, a Christian couple was lynched and set on fire in the Punjab after they had been wrongly accused of blackening the Koran.
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