LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down death sentence to six men on two counts, life imprisonment to nine, five-year to one and two-year jail term each to as many as 72 persons for their involvement in the lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot over blasphemy allegations.

Presiding Judge of the Gujranwala ATC Natasha Naseem, who conducted the trial in the Priyantha Kumara case, pronounced the guilty verdict inside Kot Lakhpat jail convicting 88 accused and acquitting one of the charges.

Capital punishment was awarded to Taimur, Mohammad Irshad, Ali Hasnain, Abdul Rehman, Abu Talha and Mohammad Humair. A fine of Rs200,000 was also imposed on each convict.

The ATC gave life imprisonment to Rohail Amjad, Mohammad Shoaib, Imran Riaz, Sajid Ameen, Zaigham Mehdi, Ihtesham Zaib, Ali Hamza, Luqman Haider and Abdul Saboor. Also, each of them was fined for Rs200,000.

While acquitting one Bilal of the charges, the court also awarded five-year sentence to Ali Asghar. Besides, 72 persons were sentenced for two years each for their involvement in the lynching of Sri Lankan national in Sialkot over four months ago.

In all, 89 persons, including nine juvenile, were indicted on March 12.

A special prosecution team, led by deputy prosecutor general Abdul Rauf Wattoo, presented the charges. The prosecution presented 43 witnesses, including Mr Kumara’s colleague who had tried his best to save him from the vigilantism in the name of blasphemy.

The victim, 49-year-old Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, was tortured to death and his body was set on fire on December 3 by furious wor­kers of the Rajco Industries garment factory, where he was a manager.

The Uggoki police later registered an FIR against 900 workers for inciting to violence and against dozens of unidentified people on terror and murder charges.

According to the challan, footage from 10 digital video recorders in the factory was sent for forensic analysis and the culprits were traced via social media videos and footage recovered from the mobile phones of 56 accused. It said their crime was unforgivable and called for the strictest punishment possible.

Mr Kumara, a Sri Lankan Christian, had been working at Rajco Industries for 10 years.

According to witnesses, only three officials from the Uggoki police station had reached the scene when the protest had turned violent and the road was blocked on December 3, 2021. Had the district police officer responded to the sensitive matter on time, the killing could have been avoided, they said and held police’s incompetence responsible for the gruesome incident.

The incident triggered widespread outrage and condemnation across Pakistan, with politicians, scholars and civil society members calling for swift trial to bring all the culprits to justice.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2022