Sri Lankan lynching in Pak: Over 800 booked under terrorism charges

Lahore: Over 800 people have been booked under terrorism charges while 13 prime suspects are among 118 arrested so far in the horrific lynching of a Sri Lankan national over allegations of blasphemy in Punjab province of Pakistan, a top police official said on Saturday, as pressure mounted on the government to bring the guilty to justice.

In a shocking incident on Friday, angry supporters of the hardline Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) attacked a garment factory and lynched its general manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana before setting his body on fire over allegations of blasphemy.

Diyawadana, who was in his 40s and was from Sri Lanka’s Kandy city, was working as the general manager in the Rajko industries (dealing in garments sportswear) in Sialkot district, some 100 kilometres from Lahore, for the last seven years or so.