Pakistan will adopt a "comprehensive plan" to stop the rising incidents of mob lynchings, the government has said after holding a high-level meeting, attended by both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javad Bajwa, days after a Sri Lankan expat was lynched in Sialkot district by a frenzied Islamist mob. 

Khan on Monday called the meeting to review the overall security situation in the country. In the meeting, which was attended by senior cabinet ministers and military officers,  all reportedly expressed “concern” over rising blasphemy-related incidents and their impact on the international image of Pakistan. 

“A comprehensive strategy shall be implemented to curb such incidents and strict punishments to all the perpetrators shall be ensured,” read a statement released by the Prime Minister Office, reported Dawn newspaper. 

Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national who was working as an export manager in Rajco Industries in Pakistan, located on the Sialkot-Wazirabad road, was on Friday first brutally assaulted and stoned by an Islamist mob of over a thousand people, then burnt alive to death in full public. 

The killing generated huge anger among Sri Lankans. After initial muted statements by the top leadership, so as not to upset growing ties between the two countries, the government has come under extreme domestic pressure, prompting its top leaders and advisors in the government to express concern about rising religious extremism. Some opposition leaders have even demanded the government recall all Sri Lankan nationals living in Pakistan. 

On Monday, Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid held a meeting with Sri Lankan High Commissioner Mohan Wijewickrama and offered condolences. The envoy also assured that the incident will have “no impact on friendly relations between two countries.”   

Priyantha, whose charred body reached Sri Lanka on Monday, was lynched on Friday over the suspicion of blasphemy—a crime punishable by death according to Pakistan laws. Recently, Islamabad has also come under the radar of the European Union, which had passed a resolution, recommending stripping the country of its GSP Plus status. 

Within Pakistan, criticism has increasingly grown of the country’s decades-old policy of appeasing and mainstreaming Islamist organizations and groups, with some experts warning the government that it could face greater isolation among the international community if religious extremism continues to grow unchecked - and even patronised - in Pakistan. (SAM)