'Individuals, mob can’t be allowed to take law into hand': PM Imran

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday chaired a meeting to review the overall security situation in the country wherein the participants viewed that individuals and mobs could not be allowed to take the law into their hands.

The meeting was attended by Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, National Security Advisor Dr. Moeed Yousaf, Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar and senior military and civil officers.

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

The participants viewed that incidents like the lynching of a Sri Lankan national could not be tolerated. Therefore, a comprehensive strategy shall be implemented to curb such incidents and strict punishments to all the perpetrators shall be ensured, they resolved.

The meeting also praised the bravery and courage of Malik Adnan who endangered his own life to save Priyantha Diyawadanage.

The meeting also conveyed the deepest condolences to the family of late Priyantha Diyawadanage.

According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office, the participants resolved to bring the perpetrators involved in the Sialkot lynching to justice.

A mob comprising hundreds of protestors, including the employees of a factory where Priyantha Kumara worked as a manager, had tortured him to death on Friday and later burnt his body over blasphemy allegations.

Subsequently, a first information report was registered against 900 workers of Rajco Industries, and scores of suspects have been arrested since then.

According to the the PMO, the participants of today's security meeting were of the view that individuals and mobs could not be allowed to take the law into their hands and such incidents could not be tolerated.

The country's civil and military leadership expressed serious concern over Kumara's lynching, stressing the need for implementing a comprehensive strategy to curb such incidents and ensuring "strict punishment" for all the perpetrators, the PMO said.

It added that the participants also acknowledged the act of bravery by one of Kumara's colleagues, Malik Adnan, who was seen confronting a group of angry men in an attempt to save the former in a video of the incident.

"Malik Adnan endangered his own life to save Priyantha Kumara," the PMO's statement said, adding that the participants of the meeting also conveyed their deepest condolences to the family of late Kumara.