Pakistan
Six sentenced to death while nine others face life imprisonment for killing a factory manager over suspected blasphemy
A member of the Human Rights Council of Pakistan pays tribute to late Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage, who was beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob who accused him of blasphemy, in Karachi on Dec. 5, 2021. (Photo: AFP)
Religious and rights activists in Pakistan have welcomed the sentencing of six people to death and nine others to life imprisonment for the brutal lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager on alleged blasphemy charges.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan’s Punjab province on April 18 also handed down two-year sentences to the remaining 72 accused who were part of the lynch mob.
The presiding judge, however, did not announce the verdict on nine juveniles whose trial is yet to be completed.
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Sri Lankan Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage, 48, was accused of committing blasphemy against Islam at the factory he managed in Sialkot, Punjab province, and was beaten to death by a mob on Dec. 3. Church leaders in Pakistan and Sri Lanka had demanded action against the culprits.
Faisal Ilyas, a program manager for youth development at Pak Mission Society, welcomed the verdict. “After the inhuman act, the judiciary proved that Pakistan has a good justice system. We need to learn from bad examples,” he said in a Facebook post.
Kashif Aslam, national project coordinator at the Catholic bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace, lauded the anti-terrorism court.
“Sadly, both countries are rich in blind followers who are hell-bent on punishing the innocent without verification. It’s a monthly trend in our country”
“We are against the death penalty. However, in this case, there had to be a precedent [set] against vigilantism and mob violence. It was the right thing to do. We are looking forward to verdicts in similar cases,” he told UCA News.
Pastor Iqbal Masih of the Presbyterian Church in Sialkot expressed his concern about the growing religious fundamentalism in both Pakistan and neighboring India.
“Sadly, both countries are rich in blind followers who are hell-bent on punishing the innocent without verification. It’s a monthly trend in our country. Most of the accused involved in lynching Christians were set free. But this time the government was under pressure as Priyantha was a foreigner,” he told UCA News.
Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in Pakistan whose strict blasphemy laws prescribe a mandatory death penalty for the guilty. Mere blasphemy allegations often provoke mob violence and lynching of suspects.
According to the Lahore-based Center for Social Justice, at least 85 persons have been killed extrajudicially since the promulgation of strict blasphemy laws by Pakistan’s former military ruler Zia-ul-Haq, who started the program of Islamization in the 1980s.
Angry mobs lynched two people and injured two in four cities of Pakistan between December 2021 and March 2022.
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