Sialkot lynching: 89 suspects indicted by ATC

Factory manager who tried to save Sri Lankan victim added to challan as one of the witnesses

LAHORE:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday indicted 89 suspects for their involvement in the mob lynching of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara in Sialkot.

ATC judge Natasha Naseem presided over the case’s hearing in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail and summoned 14 prosecution witnesses on March 14. All the accused pleaded not guilty.

In December last year, Kumara, who worked as a manager in a factory in Sialkot, was lynched by an angry mob on suspicions that he had blasphemed. A first information report was registered against 900 workers of the factory under sections 302, 297, 201, 427, 431, 157, 149 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 7 and 11WW of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Scores of suspects were arrested in the following days.

The horrible incident drew massive unanimous condemnation and outrage from all quarters of society and the government, as well as the opposition leaders, called for swift action against the perpetrators.

Subsequently, the anti-terrorism court initiated the Sialkot lynching incident’s trial earlier this month.

During Saturday’s hearing, the copies of the challan were distributed among 89 accused of the case in the hearing.

According to the challan, the prosecution has added 40 witnesses to the charge sheet, while videos and digital evidence has also been made part of it.

Moreover, DNA reports, eyewitnesses and forensic evidence have also been added to the challan.

It said that forensic analysis was conducted on the footage obtained from 10 digital video recorders in the factory, while the accused were traced via videos from social media and footage recovered from the mobile phones of 56 accused.

“The factory manager, who tried to save Sri Lankan victim Priyantha Kumara, has been among the witnesses," the sources added.

Home Horizontal 1, Home Pakistan, Pakistan (National Page)