LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – A mob of employees at a garment factory in eastern Pakistan tortured and killed their Sri Lankan manager on Friday and set his body on fire, authorities said, over what police described as an accusation of blasphemy.
“The factory workers tortured the manager,” said a provincial government spokesman Hassan Khawar. “A total of 50 people so far have been identified and arrested.”
A police official in the eastern town of Sialkot, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said investigators believed the attackers had accused the manager of blasphemy for tearing down a poster with holy verses.
Mob killings over accusations of blasphemy have been frequent occurrences in Pakistan, where the crime of blasphemy can carry the death sentence in some cases.
Tahir Ashrafi, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advisor for Interfaith Harmony, condemned the killing.
“It is a barbaric act and against Islam’s teaching,” he said in a recorded viedo statement shared on social media. “I share the grief of Sri Lankan people and the family of the deceased with an assurance that the culprit would be brought to task.”
(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Peter Graff)
