Mob kills Sri Lankan over alleged blasphemy скачать в хорошем качестве

Mob kills Sri Lankan over alleged blasphemy

(4 Dec 2021) Police arrested 13 suspects and detained dozens of others in the lynching of a Sri Lankan employee at a sports equipment factory in eastern Pakistan, officials said Saturday. A mob of hundreds of enraged Muslims descended on the factory in the eastern district of Sialkot in Punjab province Friday after the Sri Lankan manager of the factory was accused of blasphemy. The mob grabbed Priyantha Kumara, lynched him and publicly burned the body, according to police. Factory workers accused the victim of desecrating posters bearing the name of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.   Punjab police chief Rao Sardar, in his initial report to authorities, said the main suspect who instigated the workers to attack the Sri Lankan manager was arrested. He could be seen in video images instigating workers and attacking the victim himself. Sardar said investigators were screening other video available to ascertain the role of other detained suspects. The police report said the victim had asked the workers to clean machines of all stickers before a foreign delegation arrived in the factory. It said the incident started at around 11 a.m. and three constables reached the factory to control the situation. Hassan Khawar, spokesman for the Punjab government, said the provincial police chief was personally overseeing the investigation. Khurram Shahzad, a police official in Sialkot district said 123 suspects were detained in ongoing raids. The lynching was widely condemned in the country by top military and political leadership, social and religious prominent citizens and civil society members. In the conservative society of Pakistan mere allegations of blasphemy invite mob attacks.   The country's blasphemy law carries the death penalty for those found guilty of the offence. Friday's attack comes less than a week after a Muslim mob burned a police station and four police posts in northwestern Pakistan, after officers refused to hand over a mentally unstable man accused of desecrating Islam's holy book, the Quran. No officers were hurt in the attacks in Charsadda, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.   Pakistan's government has long been under pressure to change the country's blasphemy laws, something the Islamists strongly resist. A Punjab governor was shot and killed by his own guard in 2011, after he defended a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy. She was acquitted after spending eight years on death row and, following threats, left Pakistan for Canada to join her family. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...