LAHORE:Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Rao Sardar Ali Khan said on Saturday that police have arrested 118 men, including 13 prime suspects, in connection with the ghastly murder a Sri Lankan national and torching of his body.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, IG Punjab and provincial government spokesperson Hassan Khawar briefed media on the investigations into the Sialkot incident. The IG said that during the last 24 hours, police have conducted raids in over 200 areas of the city and arrested nearly 120 men. The spokesperson of Punjab revealed that the police have obtained CCTV footage of the attack from 160 cameras installed at the site.
He said that the post-mortem of the victim has been conducted and Prime Minister Imran Khan and CM Usman Buzdar are overseeing the investigations themselves. Detailing the sequence of the events that led to the incident, IG Rao said that the DPO of Sialkot reached the site 17 minutes after the first complaint.
Yesterday, the workers of a garment factory in Sialkot on Friday tortured Sri Lankan general manager Priyantha Kumara to death over allegations of blasphemy and later set his body on fire, creating widespread condemnation from government, civil society and human rights bodies.
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa said on Friday that the cold-blooded murder of Sri Lankan citizen by a mob at Sialkot is extremely condemnable and shameful. In a statement issued by ISPR, the Chief of Army Staff said such extra judicial vigilantism cannot be condoned at any cost. He directed all out support to civil administration to arrest perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to justice.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has termed the horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot and the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager as a day of shame for Pakistan. In a tweet on Friday, he said that he is overseeing the investigations and those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. He said arrests are being made. Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony Dr Noor-ul-Haq Qadri says all those involved in Sialkot incident will be brought to book and punished according to law.
In a statement on Friday, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken serious notice of the horrific incident and directed Punjab government to arrest all culprits within twenty-four hours. He said that said a transparent and impartial inquiry would be held into the incident. He said that protection of life and properties of foreigners and non-Muslim is responsibility of the state and nobody can be allowed to take the law in hand. The Minister said that Sialkot incident is an extra-judicial killing and heinous attempt to create religious hatred in the country.