Sri Lankan factory manager killed in mob attack laid to rest

• Remains of Sri Lankan factory manager laid to rest in Colombo on Wednesday.
• "We don’t know how to justify the incident that happened and it is a disaster,” says elder brother Wasantha Kumara.
• Factory manager is survived by his wife and two sons.

COLOMBO: The remains of a Sri Lankan factory manager, who was killed in a shocking and deadly mob attack in Pakistan after being accused of blasphemy, were laid to rest on Wednesday (December 8) in Sri Lanka.

A mob of factory employees in Pakistan's Punjab province tortured and burned Priyantha Kumara last Friday (December 3).

His remains were flown to Sri Lanka on Monday (December 6) and kept at his home in the Gampaha district.

"We don’t know how to justify the incident that happened and it is a disaster,” elder brother Wasantha Kumara told Reuters.

People took part in a Buddhist funeral ceremony before family members of Kumara carried his casket to the local cemetery.

"As a human being to kill an animal we think twice. Even while killing an animal also we won’t kill like this, because it is brutal murder, beaten to death, then burnt the body and some say people are telling (it happened) while he was alive,” his brother added.

The factory manager is survived by his wife and two sons.

A Punjab police spokesman said more than 100 arrests had been made, including the prime suspect, who he said was seen in videos torturing the Sri Lankan manager and instigating people against him.

Mob killings over accusations of blasphemy - a crime that can carry the death sentence - have been frequent in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Friday's killing came only weeks after days of violent protests by the  Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan movement, a religious group founded in 2015 to address actions it considers blasphemous to Islam.