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Six men have been sentenced to death over the mob killing of a Sri Lankan man accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, BBC reported.

Priyantha Diyawadanage, 48, a factory manager in the city of Sialkot, was beaten to death and his body set alight last December.

Of 88 people convicted, nine were given life sentences and the others jail terms of two to five years.

The case shocked the country and was described as "a day of shame" by the then Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Videos of the lynching on social media showed scenes of the incensed crowd dragging Mr Diyawadanage from his workplace and beating him to death.

They then burnt his body, with several people seen in the crowd taking selfies with his corpse, according to BBC.

The victim's wife, Nilushi Dissanayaka, described how she had seen him "being attacked on the internet... it was so inhumane".

What led to the mob violence?

The violence had begun after rumours spread that Mr Diyawadanage had allegedly committed a blasphemous action, in tearing down posters with the name of the Prophet Muhammad.

But a colleague, who rushed to the site in a bid to save him, told local media at the time that Mr Diyawadanage had only removed the posters as the building was about to be cleaned.

The scale of the vicious killing - involving hundreds of people - shocked the nation and sparked vigils.

Blasphemy is defined as speaking insultingly about a particular religion or god. In Pakistan, it can carry a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam.

The country's blasphemy law prohibits disturbing a religious assembly, trespassing on burial grounds, insulting religious beliefs or intentionally destroying or defiling a place or an object of worship, BBC reported.

Making derogatory remarks against Islamic personages is an offence - and in 1982, a clause prescribing life imprisonment for "wilful" desecration of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, was added. 

In 1986, a separate clause was inserted to punish blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad and the penalty recommended was "death, or imprisonment for life".

In Pakistan, even unfounded accusations can incite protests and mob violence against alleged perpetrators. Human rights critics have long argued that minorities are often the target of accusations, according to BBC.

An elderly man died after he was crushed by the chariot of Bisket Jatra in Bhaktapur on Monday.

The deceased has been identified as Durgaman Kasapal (71) of Katunje, Suryabinayak Municipality-5, Bhaktapur.

Critically injured in the incident, he breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Bhaktapur Hospital.

The seventh agriculture census is taking place from tomorrow (Tuesday). For the census that takes place every 10 years, 5,200 enumerators and 1,300 supervisors have been deployed.

The supervisors will visit the houses of total 350,000 farmers at 753 local levels of all 77 districts and collect details about agricultural activities, said Deputy Director General at Central Bureau of Statistics, Hemraj Regmi.

The agriculture census that began six months after the national census will conclude in 45 days while 19 days are allocated for data collection. The country had held the first agriculture census in 2018 BS.

The enumerators will collect details about livestock farming, crops and fishery done by the farmers. The condition of arable and barren lands and fertilizers is also listed for the data collection. The farmers will be asked 24 questions related to agricultural activities.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, around 66 percent population is engaged in agriculture, and agriculture and livestock farming has contributed 27 percent to the gross domestic product.

However, in eight months of the current fiscal year, around one-third of the total imports is related to agricultural products, according to the Department of Customs.

The census is expected to help with the formulation of plan and policy, monitoring and evaluation, said the Department Director Rajan Silwal.

Despite government prioritising agriculture, expected results are a far cry at present. Country's youths leaving for foreign jobs, failure to timely complete national pride irrigation projects, conversion of arable lands into plots and lack of availability of seeds and fertilizers in time among others are blamed for this. Failure to utilise barren lands and distribution of lands to landless squatters are also the concern. The number of landless squatters and small farmers has been around 4 million, according to available data.

According to the sixth census, 116,000 people were deprived of engaging in agriculture due to lack of their lands.

Seventy one percent people had engaged in agriculture for lifetime and 83 percent dependent on agriculture as per the census. Likewise, 42 percent farmers were deprived of agriculture loans.

Nepal reported 10 new Covid-19 cases on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 3, 600 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which nine returned positive. Likewise, 1,091 people underwent antigen tests, of which one was tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 34 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 350 active cases in the country.