Lahore, The mortal remains of Sialkot lynching victim, Priyantha Kumara, have been sent to Sri Lanka from Lahore's Allama Iqbal International Airport on Monday.
According to a report by Dawn, Kumara's body was brought to the airport in an ambulance where Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs Ejaz Alam Augustine received it and dispatched it via a Sri Lankan Airlines flight with state honours.
"Remains of Diyawadanage Don Priyantha Kumar killed by a mob in Sialkot Pakistan was transferred from Lahore to Colombo by SriLankan Airlines this afternoon" Sri Lanka High Commission in Pakistan said in a tweet.
"Today is a day of grief but we promise that the killers of Priyantha Kumara will be brought to justice," Special Representative to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Ashrafi told media.
The incident took place on Wazirabad Road in Sialkot on Friday. Priyantha Kumara was a senior manager at a leading Sialkot factory that manufactures and exports sports products.
A frenzied mob in Sialkot in Pakistan tortured a Sri Lankan factory manager to death and then burnt his body in public allegedly over allegations of blasphemy.
According to Dawn, leaders of Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities on Sunday declared the Sialkot mob lynching as ‘barbaric and brutal’.
While apologising to the people of Sri Lanka on behalf of the Pakistan, they demanded the Chief Justice of Pakistan to ensure a speedy trial of the culprits for an early justice.
The Pakistan daily had obtained a footage showing a colleague trying to protect Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage on the roof of the factory where he had fled while the mob of around two dozen people slowly grew in number.
The mob could be heard chanting slogan and saying "he (the manager) will not escape today," while the colleague helplessly tried to shield Diyawadanage with his body, who clung to the man's legs.
However, the mob overpowered the colleague and dragged Diyawadanage out on the road.
He was then beaten with kicks, stones and iron rods, thus, killing him on the spot. His body was then set on fire.
The Sri Lankan apparently tore up a poster of the hardline Islamist party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in which Quranic verses were inscribed and threw it in the dustbin.
The poster of the Islamist party was pasted on a wall adjoining Kumara’s office. Some factory workers saw him removing the poster and spread the word.
Rumours of blasphemy spread among the factory workers and they first came out of the installation to protest on the road. The mob then re-entered the factory and tortured the victim, beating him to death.