Sialkot factory hires another Sri Lankan for Priyantha Kumara’s position

Special Representative to Pakistani Prime Minister on Religious Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi and renowned religious scholar Maulana Tariq Jamil on Wednesday met Sri Lankan High Commissioner Mohan Wijewickrama at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Islamabad.

They have expressed grief at the lynching of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara by a charged mob in Sialkot earlier this month.

Kumara, a senior manager at a factory in Sialkot, was tortured to death on December 3 by hundreds of protesters, including the factory employees, and his body was later burnt.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Ashrafi, while condemning the Sialkot incident, said that the factory’s management has decided to bear all the expenses of the two children of Kumara, besides giving the position of senior manager to a Sri Lankan citizen in the factory.

Maulana Tariq Jamil apologised for the incident and said that Islam does not allow such barbarity. The religion does not allow oppression at all.

Jamil said that Islam’s literal meaning refers to submission, surrender and peaceful reconciliation, especially compliance with divine directives.

The whole Pakistani nation is ashamed for that barbarity. No one has the right to burn anyone, he added.

Speaking on the occasion the Sri Lankan high commissioner thanked both dignitaries for visiting the embassy and said that the Sri Lankan government is fully satisfied with the steps taken by the Pakistani government.

Earlier on December 7, clerics from various schools of thought had visited the Sri Lankan Embassy in Islamabad and unanimously condemned the lynching of Kumara, calling it “un-Islamic” and extrajudicial”. They had demanded that strict legal action be meted out to those responsible.