An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan  has awarded death sentence to six people, life imprisonment to nine, in last year's gruesome hate crime case where a mob of hundreds of Islamists lynched a Sri Lankan national to death on suspicion of blasphemy. Another 72 people were awarded a two-year sentence in the same case, a senior Pakistani official confirmed.

Priyantha Kumara, a Sri Lankan national, who had been working as a manager in Rajco Industries in the Sialkot district, was lynched in public by hundreds of Islamist fanatics who accused him of blasphemy. 

Videos of the incident that circulated on social media shocked people across the world, including in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and highlighted the dangerous trend of mob lynching by Islamists in Pakistan. After his death, Kumara’s body was set on fire. 

At a press conference on Monday, Nadeem Sarwar, secretary at Punjab Prosecution Department, informed that a total of 89 people were tried in the case, of whom 88 were convicted, including one who got a five-year sentence. Only a single person was acquitted in the case. Nine among those convicted are believed to be minors.

"In less than a month, the prosecution completed the testimonies of witnesses. After that, the court gave them a full chance to defend themselves. Today, the ATC Gujranwala, upon the crime being proven, has punished 88 accused while one has been acquitted,” Sarwar was quoted as saying by Dawn. 

"This is a very good day as the law punished those who took away an innocent life. It is now hoped that the elements spreading religious extremism will be dealt with in the same manner," he said.

Incidents of lynching on the charges of blasphemy, a crime punished by the death sentence under the Pakistan laws, have been growing in recent years in the country, with people often belonging to non-Muslim minority communities becoming victims. 

(SAM)