Sri Lanka Approves Compensation For Family Of Lankan National Brutally Killed By Fanatics In Pakistan Over 'Blasphemy'

The Sri Lankan government on Tuesday (7 December) approved a proposal to provide a compensation of Rs 2.5 million (~ $12,300) to the family of the Lankan national who was brutally killed by a mob in Pakistan's Sialkot last week over blasphemy allegations.

The proposal was moved by Sri Lanka's Minister of Labour to provide a grant of Rs. 2.5 million on a humanitarian basis for the welfare of the slain Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana's wife and children, who were devastated from his death, reports Daily News.

The Employees' Welfare Fund of the Bureau of Foreign Employment will provide the compensation to Diyawadana's family, considering his extensive contribution to the Sri Lankan economy over a period of eleven years as a migrant worker.

In a grisly incident on Friday (3 December), Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, who was in his 40s, was lynched and his body burnt by angry supporters of a hardline Islamist party which attacked a garment factory in Pakistan's Punjab province over blasphemy allegations.

Diyawadana, from Sri Lanka’s Kandy, was working as the general manager of the garment factory in Sialkot district, some 100 km from Lahore.

He had graduated from the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.

Diyawadana was murdered by the supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a hardline Islamist party, which was previously banned.

'Kumara allegedly tore a poster of the hardline TLP in which Quranic verses were inscribed and threw it in the dustbin. The poster of the Islamist party was pasted on the wall adjoining the office of Kumara. A couple of factory workers saw him removing the poster and spread the word in the factory,' according to a police official in Pakistan's Punjab province, PTI reported.

Hundreds of men, enraged over the “blasphemy” incident, started gathering outside the factory from adjoining areas. Most of them were activists and supporters of the TLP.

'The mob dragged the suspect (the Sri Lankan national) from the factory and severely tortured him. After he succumbed to his wounds, the mob burnt his body before police reached there,' the official said.

Several videos were circulated on social media showing hundreds of men gathered at the site surrounding the body of the Sri Lankan national. They were chanting slogans of the TLP.

The Pakistan government led by Prime Minister Khan had recently lifted a ban on the TLP after signing a secret agreement with it after which its chief Saad Rizvi and over 1,500 activists accused of terrorism were released from jail.

The TLP in return had ended its week-long sit-in in Punjab after withdrawing its demand of expelling the French ambassador on the issue of blasphemous cartoons in France.