Pakistan: Death sentences over killing of Sri Lankan accused of blasphemy

Also: Six sentenced to death for lynching Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan (Reuters)

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Source: BBC

Pakistan: Death sentences over killing of Sri Lankan accused of blasphemy

18 April 2022

Six men have been sentenced to death over the mob killing of a Sri Lankan man accused of blasphemy in Pakistan.

Priyantha Diyawadanage, 48, a factory manager in the city of Sialkot, was beaten to death and his body set alight last December.

Of 88 people convicted, nine were given life sentences and the others jail terms of two to five years.

The case shocked the country and was described as "a day of shame" by the then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Videos of the lynching on social media showed scenes of the incensed crowd dragging Mr Diyawadanage from his workplace and beating him to death.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61144442

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Source: Reuters

Six sentenced to death for lynching Sri Lankan factory manager in Pakistan

Mubasher Bukhari
Mon, April 18, 2022, 11:56 AM·1 min read

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A court sentenced six men to death on Monday in a mass trial for the mob lynching of a clothes factory's Sri Lankan manager in eastern Pakistan last year, the case's public prosecutor said.

Scores of enraged workers in the city of Sialkot tortured and burned the man in December over accusations of blasphemy which a police official at the time linked to the removal of a poster with Islamic holy verses.

Mobile phone footage shows him being chased onto a roof then beaten with sticks, dragged onto the streets, stripped and set alight. One man who seeks to help him is shoved aside, according to images on social media that shocked both nations.

The Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore, set up inside a high-security prison, also gave life sentences to nine people, five years' jail to one, and two-year sentences to 72, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-court-sentences-seven-men-155654618.html