December 4th, 2021
By Ahmed Saeed
LAHORE
A close relative of the lynched Sri Lankan factory manager, Mr. Priyantha Diyawadana, has said that the gruesome incident has provided the Pakistani nation with to act as sane.“This time it is a big chance to do sanity practice”, Mr. Amal Senerath, a brother-in-law of Mr. Diyawadana, said in a message to Pakistanis. He was responding from Colombo, Sri Lanka to a voicepk call.Voicepk contacted Mr Senerath both by telephone and internet. He described Mr. Diyawadana as a peace-loving and family-oriented person.“My brother in law was working in Pakistan to to feed his family,” he said.On Friday Dec 3, an angry mob lynched Mr. Diyawadana, who was working as the general manager in a sportswear manufacturing/exporting company to death. There were various accounts about the motive behind the heinous act. One widely circulating version said he had allegedly removed a sticker carrying holy verse pasted on a wall.
An enraged mob comprising mainly his co-workers gathered outside his office and then beat Mr Diyawadana to death. The next, the mob dragged his body on to the nearby main road. There the crowd swelled to thousands who put the body on fire.
Apparently trying hard to cope with the emergency, from Colombo Mr. Senerath regretted the division on the basis of religion. He said all humans were born equal and which religion they followed was decided later. It was the desire for a better living which compelled people to find the best job ( near and far from home).
Mr. Diyawadana had been living and working in Pakistan since 2010. He had earlier worked in textile factories in Lahore and Faisalabad.
Prime Minister of Pakistan took notice of the gruesome incident and assured that perpetrators will be taken to task. “The horrific vigilante attack on a factory in Sialkot & the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations & let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. Arrests are in progress”, PM Khan tweeted.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a tweet said Shocking to see the brutal and fatal attack on Priyantha Diyawadana by extremist mobs in #Pakistan. My heart goes out to his wife and family. #SriLanka and her people are confident that PM @ImranKhanPTI will keep to his commitment to bring all those involved to justice.”The bone-chilling incident sent shock waves across the country and people from all walks of life have condemned the incident and demanded the government to take strict action against all those responsible.
Sialkot police have registered an FIR on anti-terrorism charges and have apprehended over 100 people in connection to this incident.
Shahbaz Gill, Special Assistant to Prime Minister of Pakistan on Political Communication tweeted that Prime Minister Imran Khan was taking direct updates of the investigations and all the prime accused have already been arrested.