Priyantha Kumara Laid To Rest With State Honours In Native Village

Priyantha Kumara Laid To Rest With State Honours In Native Village
Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan national who was lynched by a mob in Sialkot over blasphemy allegations, has been buried with state honours in his native village of Ganemulla.

Religious rites were held at Kumara’s residence, on Wednesday, by Buddhist clergy before a procession led by the police carried the remains to the cemetery. The road along which the procession traveled was embellished with banners and white flags.

Kumara’s brother, Arunasiri Wasantha Kumara Diyawadana, who also works at a factory in Pakistan, said that factories don’t have a secure environment. He added that dispute resolution mechanisms must exist in factories to make sure such disagreements can be resolved before they escalate into something horrible.

He said the two governments should determine “the actual root cause for this, either if it’s a religious matter or an industrial dispute, and accordingly they have to find a solution”.

Earlier, on Friday, a mob in Sialkot brutally murdered a Sri Lankan man and set his body on fire over blasphemy allegations. Priyantha Kumara, the export manager of a private factory, was attacked by workers of the factory on Wazirabad road in Sialkot.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Khan pledged that his government would not tolerate mob violence in the name of religion or spare those responsible for it.