Police arrest 120 suspects in Sialkot lynching case

LAHORE: Investigators have submitted an initial report on cold-blooded murder of a Sri Lankan general manager Priyantha Kumara, who was brutally lynched by a mob at a factory in Sialkot, to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, ARY News reported on Saturday.

According to a report, 120 suspects involved in the incident have been arrested so far by law enforcement agencies.

The investigators are identifying more suspects with the help of CCTV footage, the report said.

In a statement, CM Buzdar said that he was personally monitoring the investigation and all those involved in the murder of Priyantha Diyawadana in Sialkot would be brought to justice.

According to the report, copies of which have been forwarded to Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, a delegation from foreign companies was to visit the factory, due to which the manager instructed his workers to clean all machines and remove stickers from them.

The stickers carried religious inscriptions, the report quoted an arrested factory worker as claiming before the investigators. Seemingly, the workers attacked their manager under the garb of the stickers, it said.

Also Read: PM Imran Khan vows to punish perpetrators of Sialkot incident

“The workers were already enraged at the manager for his strict discipline and work rate,” the report said. “Some workers were also fired for breach of discipline and laziness,” it pointed out.

The report said the police got information about the torture and brutal attack of the manager at 11:25am with three policemen reaching the scene shortly afterwards.

Sialkot Incident

The tragic incident took place at a factory located at Sialkot’s Wazirabad Road, where a foreign factory manager was brutally tortured by the workers with sticks.

This was not it, the enraged people showed no mercy and set the severely injured foreign manager on fire, as a result of which he was burnt to death.

After the incident, the factory employees vandalized properties outside the factory and also damaged the vehicles.