Angry supporters of a hardline Islamist party attacked a factory in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Friday, lynching a Sri Lankan national and burning his body over allegations of blasphemy, the police said.

Priyantha Kumara, who was in his 40s, was working as the general manager of a factory in Sialkot district, some 100km from here, a Punjab police official said.

“Kumara allegedly tore a poster of the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) in which Quranic verses were inscribed and threw it in the dustbin. The poster of the Islamist party was pasted on the wall adjoining Kumara’s office. A couple of factory workers saw him removing the poster and spread the word in the factory,” the official said.
Hundreds of men, enraged over the “blasphemy” incident, started gathering outside the factory. Most of them were supporters of the TLP.

“The mob dragged the suspect (the Sri Lankan national) from the factory and severely tortured him. After he succumbed to his wounds, the mob burnt his body before the police reached there,” the official said. Several videos were circulated on social media showing hundreds of men gathered at the site.