The body of a Sri Lankan national who was lynched by a mob in Pakistan’s Punjab province on charges of blasphemy was taken to Colombo on Monday, while authorities arrested more suspects involved in the gruesome incident that defames the country.
The wooden coffin has the words: “Human remains of Late Don Nandashree P Kumara Diyavadange. From Lahore to Colombo’.
A mob of over 800 people, including supporters of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), attacked a garment factory in Sialkot district on Friday last Friday, killing and setting its general manager Priyanta Kumara Diyawadnage on fire. , about 100 km from Lahore.
“The Sri Lankan High Commission officials arrived here on Monday morning and Punjab Minorities Minister Ejaz Alam handed over the body at the Lahore airport. The body was carried by a Sri Lankan Airlines flight,” a Punjab government official said. PTI.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Police claimed to have arrested seven more prime suspects allegedly involved in the lynching of 49-year-old Kumara.
“A total of 131 suspects, including 26 main ones, have been arrested so far. In a tweet on Monday, Punjab Police said, 26 prime suspects played a key role in instigating people, lynching Kumara and setting her body on fire.
Some 15 key suspects were produced before the Anti-Terrorism Court Gujranwala on Monday where they were remanded to 15-day police custody.
According to the police, after brutally killing Kumara, the mob wanted to kill the factory owner as well and set the building on fire.
“The mob wanted to set the entire factory on fire after Kumara was killed. A group of accused workers went towards the factory owner’s residence to kill him, but the timely action of the police prevented further violence,” said Sialkot district police officer Umar Saeed.
Earlier, explaining the sequence of the gruesome incident, Inspector General of Police (Punjab) Rao Sardar Ali Khan had said: “A mob of over 800 people gathered and attacked the factory at 10 am on Friday, when reports emerged that Kumara had torn a sticker/poster. Inscribed with Islamic verses and a blasphemy. When they searched for him, he was found lying on the terrace. They dragged him, beat him badly and by 11.28 am he was dead and his body was set on fire by the violent mob.”
Kumara was working as General Manager in Rajco Industries, which does sports business for the last seven years.
This horrific incident caused outrage across Pakistan and all sections of the society condemned it and demanded that the culprits be punished.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday announced the Tamga-e-Shuzaat (civilian award for bravery) for Malik Adnan, an aide of the victim who tried to save him from the mob.
“On behalf of the nation, I would like to salute the moral courage and bravery of Malik Adnan, who did his best to shelter and save Priyanta Diyavadana from the vigilante mob in Sialkot, in which she tried to physically shield her life. Putting him in danger. Hunting. We will award him the Tamga-e-Shujaat,” Khan tweeted.
The CCTV footage shows Adnan, the production manager, confronting a group of angry men by himself and desperately trying to stop the flare-up and then trying to save Kumar from the mob.
The mob later overpowered Adnan and dragged Kumara onto the road and tortured her with kicks, stones and iron rods, leading to her death on the spot. Then the mob set the body on fire on the charge of blasphemy.
According to the postmortem report, in this horrific lynching incident, almost all of Kumara’s bones were broken and her body was burnt to 99 percent.
Kumara moved to Pakistan in 2011 after getting a job as a mechanical engineer in a garment factory in Faisalabad. A year later, he joined Rajco Industries in Sialkot as General Manager and was the only Sri Lankan national to work in the factory.
He is survived by his wife and two sons aged 14 and 9.
,