‘Murders take place when young people get emotional’: Pakistan defence minister on Sialkot lynching | World News
Amid outrage over the mob lynching of a Sri Lankan man in Pakistan, defence minister Pervez Khattak said that the case should not be linked with the government’s decision to lift the ban on Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a radical party that staged massive anti-France protests, local media reported.
Speaking on the same, the defence minister also suggested that “murders take place when young people get emotional”, according to a report in The Dawn.
The defence minister made the comments while he was responding to a reporter during a press interaction on Sunday in Peshawar. The reporter had asked whether the Pakistan government -led by Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf, is considering an “effective crackdown” against groups like TLP.
A factory manager, Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana was lynched by a mob in Sialkot on Friday. He was accused of blasphemy. Later the mob burned his body. Several gruesome video clips shared on social media showed a mob beating the victim while chanting slogans against blasphemy.
The incident sparked a countrywide rage and condemnation with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan calling it “a day of shame” for the country. The killing has been linked with the members of TLP, however, the group has distanced itself from the incident.
“You know the reasons [behind this incident] too. When children … grow up, they become spirited and do things out of emotions,” Khattar told the journalist. “This does not mean ‘this was the result of that action’,” he also said, adding, “in Sialkot too some young men had gathered and accused Kumara of disrespecting Islam, which led to the “sudden” lynching, as per the Dawn report.
Khattak continued and said, even he could do something wrong in a state of heightened emotions, and such incidents did not mean “Pakistan is going towards destruction.”
Khattak also said boys entering adulthood are “ready to do anything” and learn with age how to control their emotions.