Pakistan’s minister for defence Pervez Khattak on Monday made controversial remarks on the gruesome lynching of Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana in Sialkot, inviting widespread condemnation. The Sri Lankan public security minister Rear Admiral (Retd) Sarath Weerasekara demanded an apology from the Pakistan minister.
“Pakistan's minister of defence must apologise to the people of Sri Lanka for those remarks,” Weerasekara was quoted as saying by news agency News1st TV.
Khattak allegedly said that ‘murders can happen when people get emotional’ when he was asked that if the recent lifting of the ban on Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) could be connected to the incident. It was the hardline Islamist supporters of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) who lynched Diyawadana, a factory manager, for opposing pasting of posters of TLP in factory premises, which contained Islamic verses and tossed them away and allegedly committing blasphemy, and burnt him in the middle of the street.
The Imran Khan government earlier this year, owing to massive protests from the TLP, released more than 1,000 prisoners accused of terrorism who were part of the group. The TLP also caused damages to several cities in Pakistan when it demanded the expulsion of the French envoy following the release of Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures in France. It withdrew its demand after the prisoners were released.
{{/usCountry}}The Imran Khan government earlier this year, owing to massive protests from the TLP, released more than 1,000 prisoners accused of terrorism who were part of the group. The TLP also caused damages to several cities in Pakistan when it demanded the expulsion of the French envoy following the release of Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures in France. It withdrew its demand after the prisoners were released.
{{/usCountry}}Pakistani media also criticised the defence minister. News agency Dawn in its editorial said that the remarks "create an impression that such killings are somehow a ‘normal’ part of growing up in a country where religion can be used to justify crime."
“Mr Khattak’s remarks are deeply problematic. Such a statement from a federal minister should come as a shock, but unfortunately, we are accustomed to our public officials being in denial about the realities of extremism and violence in the country,” the editorial said.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa earlier this week reiterated that he hopes Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan would avenge the death of the factory manager from Kandy who was living and working in Pakistan for more than a decade.