Lahore, Mar 15 (PTI) A total of 17 prosecution witnesses on Tuesday recorded their statements before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) here in the lynching of a Sri Lankan national over blasphemy allegations in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
In a shocking incident in December last year, a mob of hundreds of men including supporters of a hardline Islamist party – Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) – attacked a garment factory and lynched its general manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana and burned his body over allegations of blasphemy in Sialkot district, some 100-km from Lahore.
The incident sparked outrage across Pakistan with all sections of society condemning it and calling for the culprits to be given exemplary punishment.
“The ATC Lahore recorded the statements of 17 prosecution witnesses against the suspects allegedly involved in the ghastly incident of lynching and burning of Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, 47,” a court official told PTI on Tuesday.
The trial is being held in jail and is in-camera because of security concerns. ATC judge Natasha Nasim is holding the trial proceedings inside the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore on a day-to-day basis.
The ATC Lahore on last Saturday indicted 89 suspects involved in the incident. On Monday, six prosecution witnesses had recorded their statements.
The prosecution has submitted a list of 40 witnesses, videos of the suspects, DNA and forensic evidence. The suspects had denied the charges of their involvement in the crime.
The judge adjourned the hearing till Wednesday.
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.
Kumara was working as general manager in the Rajko industries (dealing in garments – sportswear) in Sialkot district for the last seven years.
Mob killings over allegations of blasphemy have been very common in Pakistan, where the crime can carry the death sentence.
n April 2017, an angry mob lynched university student Mashal Khan when he was accused of posting blasphemous content online.
A Christian couple was lynched and then set ablaze in a kiln in Punjab in 2014 after being accused of desecrating the Quran. PTI MZ MRJ MRJ
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