Pak detains 85 for role in Lankan man's lynching

Lahore, December 29

Authorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday said they have detained 85 main suspects after determining their role in the brutal lynching of a Sri Lankan national in Sialkot city earlier this month.

A mob of 800 men, including supporters of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), attacked a garment factory in Sialkot on December 3 and lynched its 49-year-old general manager — Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana — before setting his body on fire over allegations of blasphemy. An official said over 100 other suspects were also included in the investigation but no evidence of their involvement in the case was detected, thus they were not named in the FIR and some of them who were detained were released. “We want to present a strong case against prime suspects in the court and investigation teams are working hard on it,” he said. — PTI