It was December 3. Hundreds of people, a majority of them young men working in a sportswear factory in Sialkot, lynched their Sri Lankan manager, Priyantha Kumara, after accusing him of blasphemy. They did not stop there. They had been ruthlessly dragging, kicking and beating his lifeless body with batons until they burnt in front a few policemen, who stood quietly watching the barbarity.

Kumara had been a manager at the factory for the past nine years. According to his colleague, Malik Adnan – who tried to stop the mob but failed – Kumara did not know the Urdu language, and had always focused on quality and maintaining manufacturing and production standards.

“A visit by a foreign audit and inspection team was scheduled in the coming days. Kumara visited the stitching unit to ensure neatness. He removed the stickers he found there,” said Adnan. Kumara later apologised for his ignorance when some of the worker took offence. For a while the issued appeared to have been resolved but then one of the supervisors provoked the staff, and dozens of workers ran after the manager who tried to save his life first, by hiding in his office and later, going to the rooftop to seek another exit to escape the mob. The rioting workers broke down the door to the stairs and caught him on the roof. They lynched him on the spot, and later according to some workers, threw his body down from the fourth floor of the building. “I failed to help and save my colleague. Nobody listened to me,” Adnan reported.

In the video clips circulating on social media, Kumara can be seen hiding under the solar panels on the rooftop, visibly petrified, holding on to the legs of the only person who tried to save his life. The effort was in vain.

Two individuals involved in the lynching told the media that the manager had torn labels and stickers carrying holy names and quotes in Arabic and Urdu languages, and thrown them down. This, they claimed, had hurt them and they had decided to “teach him a lesson”. “We sent him to hell and burnt his body,” one of the attackers said. Kumara, had allegedly torn a poster with a “Labbaik Ya Hussain” inscription and an advice to recite durood (homage to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his descendants).

The violent workers chanted the slogan “Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah” (Here I am, at your service, O Messenger of Allah). Videos on social media show that the body was desecrated and later burnt.

The commotion and the violence started in the morning and continued till noon but there is no footage of factory owners intervening or ordering the security guards to control the around two dozen workers. The factory, Rajco, is quite large and known as a leading manufacturer and exporter of sportswear in Pakistan. It has more than a dozen security guards, says a police officer. Instead, the factory owners ran away leaving the manager to the mercy of a provoked mob.

Police also said that Kumara was considered an honest and upright manager, and many workers were unhappy with him because of his strict discipline. 

Local police also told The News on Sunday (TNS) that the trouble started after the deceased tore some stickers. According to the police, the issue was resolved initially but later some workers provoked others. Police also said that Kumara was considered an honest and upright manager and that some workers had been unhappy with him because of his strict discipline.

Mian Imran Akbar, the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president, has described the killing as a “personal vendetta” on part of some labourers, under the garb of alleged hurt of religious sentiment. “From the details of the case, it was evident that Priyantha was a thorough professional known for his stern production standards,” his statement reads.

Police claim to have arrested as many as 130 people including a couple of key culprits. Prime Minister Imran Khan has assured his Sri Lankan counterpart that justice will be served and there will be zero-tolerance for such incidents.

There have been incidents earlier of lynching on mere accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan in the past as well. Kumara is said however to be the first non-Muslim foreigner to become a victim of this ruse.

Allegations of blasphemy have been used frequently to target an individual or a group for unrelated motives. In many cases, the allegation is meant to provoke and exploit the sentiments of people to create a scene or mount self-serving pressure. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a non-government organisation, has said that this recent act of savagery on flimsy grounds has exposed the reality of the spiralling radicalisation in Pakistan.

A few days before the Sialkot incident, a violent mob had attacked and set on fire a police station in Charsadda district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, demanding that the authorities hand over to them a man who had been arrested for the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran. The mob, comprising hundreds of people, had burnt the police station and vandalised the vehicles parked at the police station. According to a senior police officer, the accused was “apparently mentally deranged, unstable and dumb.”

In November 2014, a Christian couple was burnt alive in a brickmaking kiln after being accused of desecrating the Holy Quran. The violent mob, in Kot Radha Kishan, in Kasur district, had been provoked through announcements from local mosques.

In July 2012, a mob consisting of several hundred people snatched from police custody a mentally unstable man accused of allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran in Bahawalpur district, tortured him to death and torched his body.

In August 2009, in Muridkay, in Sheikhupura district, factory workers killed the owner for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran after he was seen removing an old calendar hung on the wall of his office that carried some with verses from the Holy Quran. According to police investigation, the workers had an ongoing issue with the owner relating to a demand of pay increase.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets @waqargillani