The factory in Sialkot, Pakistan has hired another Sri Lankan to replace General Manager Priyantha Diyawadana, who was brutally murdered by a few employees at the factory.
This was revealed by Hafiz Mohammad Tahir Ashrafi, the Special Representative of the Prime Minister on Religious Co-existence, during his visit to the Sri Lankan High Commission on Wednesday with Maulana Tariq Jamil, a well-known Islamic preacher, to express his condolences over the Sialkot incident.
Supporters of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) attacked and burned to death the factory general manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, a 49-year-old Sri Lankan man accused of blasphemy for tearing down a poster with a Koranic verse in Sialkot earlier this month.
Speaking to the media, after meeting Sri Lankan High Commissioner Mohan Wijewickrama, Ashrafi said the factory owner would bear the education expenses of Kumara’s children.
‘A Sri Lankan citizen has been given a job in the factory administration. We thank the Sri Lankans for choosing one of them to work here in this frightening environment,’ he said.
However, he did not give the name or other details of the new manager of the factory which is famous for sporting goods.
Maulana Tariq Jamil described the assassination of Kumara as a “brutal act” that embarrassed the entire country.
“I told the high commissioner that we had come to apologize,” the priest said.
Commenting on the occasion, the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka thanked the two Priests present.
Kumar’s assassination has been widely condemned in religious circles in Pakistan.
Almost all the clergy came to the Sri Lankan High Commission on December 7 and unanimously condemned the killing, declaring it ‘un-Islamic’.
By December 13, Pakistani police said they had arrested 18 more suspects in connection with Kumara’s murder. The total number of detainees with the above arrests is close to 52, Sialkot police spokesman Khuram Shezad told Dawn. “34 main suspects are already in police custody. Another 100 are under investigation.”