Lahore: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced a 27-year-old man to one year of imprisonment and imposed a fine for justifying the lynching of a Sri Lankan citizen in a video, which went viral on his YouTube channel. On December 3 last year, a mob of over 800 men attacked a garment factory in Sialkot district and lynched its general manager Priyantha Kumara, 47, and burned his body over allegations of blasphemy.
According to police, Muhammad Adnan of Sialkot had uploaded a video on his YouTube channel on the lynching incident in which he justified Kumara’s killing and burning of his body. “Adnan had advocated the killing of those committing blasphemy. On his YouTube channel, he made arguments in favour of the killing of Kumara. As the video went viral on social media, police lodged an FIR against him and presented a chargesheet against him in Gujranwala anti-terrorism court (ATC),” said assistant sub inspector Mubarak Ali, who is also a complainant of the case.
Pronouncing the verdict, ATC judge Natasha Naeem sentenced Adnan to one year jail term, besides imposing a fine of PKR 10,000 on him. The prosecution presented the video of Adnan in the court which he did not deny, Ali said. Some 85 main suspects in the lynching case are detained on physical remand. They will be presented before the ATC on January 31.
