A mob in Pakistan’s Sialkot tortured a Sri Lankan national to death and then burnt his body on Friday, reports said. The report said police were later sent to the area to bring the situation under control.
Punjab Police IG Rao Sardar Ali Khan took notice of the incident and directed the Gujranwala regional police officer to reach the location immediately.
According to a Dawn.com report, the incident took place in Sialkot’s Wazirabad Road, where workers of private factories reportedly attacked the export manager of a factory and burnt his body after killing him.
Sialkot district police officer Umar Saeed Malik said the man, identified as Priyantha Kumara, was a Sri Lankan national.
Priyantha Kumara, who was in his 40s, allegedly tore a poster of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) with Quranic verses inscribed in it and threw it in the dustbin, news agency PTI reported an official as saying.
“Mr Kumara allegedly tore a poster of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in which Quranic verses were inscribed and threw it in the dustbin. The poster of the Islamist party was pasted on the wall adjoining the office of Kumara. A couple of factory workers saw him removing the poster and spread the word in the factory,” the official was quoted as saying.
The videos, which went viral on social media, showed hundreds of people at the site, with groups of them chanting slogans.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar took notice of the murder, terming it as a “very tragic incident”, while the spokesperson for Sialkot Police said details would be shared with the media after the initial investigation.
Buzdar has summoned a report from the inspector general of police and ordered a high-level inquiry into the matter.
A similar incident was reported from Sialkot in 2010, where a mob had lynched two brothers in the presence of police, declaring them dacoits.
