Daily Times

The civil and military leadership Monday unanimously decided that individuals and mobs could not be allowed to take the law into their own hands and attack and lynch innocent people.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan to review the overall security situation in the country, according to a statement issued by the PM Office.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yousaf, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other senior military and civil officials were in attendance.

The meeting expressed serious concern over the cruel act of killing of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Diyawadanage in Sialkot last Friday and expressed their firm resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“A comprehensive strategy shall be implemented to curb such incidents and strict punishment to all the perpetrators shall be ensured,” read the communiqué. The participants also praised the bravery and courage of Malik Adnan who endangered his own life to protect the foreign national from the violent mob. They also conveyed deepest condolences to the family of late Priyantha Kumara.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari Monday said the government had decided to review the National Action Plan (NAP) on counter-terrorism in the wake of brutal lynching of Priyantha Kumara, says a media report.

The National Action Plan, enacted through a strong political consensus after the 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, was aimed at taking result-oriented measures to counter terrorism in the country. The minister’s remarks came amid countrywide outrage after a mob – comprising hundreds of protestors – tortured to death Kumara over blasphemy allegations and then burnt his body on Friday. The minister rued the recurrence of such incidents and called for a strict government action, terming it the need of the hour. “This lynching was not the first of its kind. We have seen the case of Mashal Khan, and two of our Christian community members were burnt… it’s now time to take definitive action as the state”.

She said distortion of religion and torture of people in its wake should be condemned in the strongest terms.

The human rights minister also expressed worry over growing extremism in the country, saying the NAP had to be fully enforced to combat the menace.

“We need to review our laws for devising a comprehensive strategy to prevent such incidents in the future,” Mazari stressed. Specifically pointing to the NAP, the minister said it must be seen where the action plan had not been implemented.

She also called upon different parties in the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to “de-link” themselves from Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his leadership for his controversial statement in which he had said that if the state did not take action against those accused of blasphemy, then such incidents will continue to happen.

The minister, in the same breath, defended Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, saying he had already clarified on Twitter that he was misunderstood and that his remarks were reported out of context in sections of the media.

It remains unclear which tweet the minister was referring to with regard to the clarification.

Addressing the media in Peshawar a day earlier, Khattak had suggested that the ghastly incident should not be linked to the government’s decision to lift the ban on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), saying “murders take place” when young people get emotional.

“You know the reasons [behind this incident] too. When children … grow up, they become spirited and do things out of emotions. This does not mean ‘this was the result of that action’,” he had stressed, saying in Sialkot too, some young men had gathered and accused Kumara of disrespecting Islam, which led to the “sudden” lynching.

“We should focus on his clarification that what he had said was misunderstood and reported out of context,” said the minister, adding that the prime minister’s position was very clear on the issue and this was also the government’s position.