Islamabad: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced 27-year-old youth to one year in prison for justifying in a video Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara mob lynching. The Pakistani youth had made this video viral through his YouTube channel.
It is noteworthy that on December 3 last year, mob of over 800 people attacked a garment factory in Sialkot, 100 km from Lahore. The crowd also included supporters of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.
During this, the general manager of factory, Priyantha Kumara was beaten to death on charges of blasphemy and his body was burnt.
According to the police, Mohammed Adnan of Sialkot had uploaded a video justifying Kumara’s murder on his YouTube channel.
In the video, he has justified the lynching of Priyantha Kumara and then burning her body.
Assistant sub-inspector of police Mubarak Ali said, “Adnan had advocated killing blasphemers. He is giving arguments in support of Kumara’s murder on YouTube channel.”
After registering an FIR against Adnan, the police filed the charge sheet in the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gujranwala.
Ali said that ATC Gujranwala judge Natasha Naeem on Friday sentenced Adnan to one year imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 (Pakistani) on him.
The role of 85 prime suspects in Kumara’s murder case has been ascertained and remanded. He will be produced before the ATC on January 31.
Around 200 suspects were taken into custody after Kumara’s murder. However, 115 of them were later released after no evidence of their involvement in the incident was found.
