An anti-terrorism court in Karachi has sentenced Zubair known as “Charia” and Abdul Rehman famous as “Bhola”, the main accused in the Baldia Factory case, to death and four other facilitators to life imprisonment.
Four other accused named in the case Rauf Siddiqui, Iqbal Adib Khanum, Umar Hassan Qadri and Abdul Sattar have been acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The accused who have been sentenced to life imprisonment include Shah Rukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mahmood and Ali Muhammad.
A fire broke out in a denim factory near Hub River Road in Baldia Town area of Karachi on September 11, 2012, killing 260 workers and injuring about 50 others.
The court ruled that the factory was not set on fire but was set on fire.
Former provincial minister Rauf Siddiqui is currently out on bail. Abdul Rehman Bhola and Zubair Charia are in jail while Hamad Siddiqui and Umar Hassan Qadri are absconding.
They were accused of setting fire to the factory on the orders of Hamad Siddiqui, head of the Karachi Organizing Committee, for extortion money.
In addition to forensic evidence and chemical reports, the prosecution also produced 400 witnesses.
Unfair justice
The relatives of the victims who were burnt to death in the factory consider the verdict as incomplete justice.
Saeedah Bibi, whose 18-year-old son Ijaz alias Ian was killed in the incident, said it was a terrorist incident.
The owners were asked to pay an extortion which they did not pay and burned 260 children, including her son.
We believe that the owners are also complicit in the crime and should be punished.
Saeeda Bibi herself used to work in this factory but when she suddenly quit her job due to ill health, her son started working in the same factory and was working as well as privately preparing for the ninth grade exams.
Saeeda Bibi asked, “There was talk of giving Rs 90 million by the owners. It was also mentioned in the JIT. Where are the Rs 90 million that the family could not get?”
Saleem Ahmed, 18, was also killed in the incident.
His father says he also blames the owners because when he arrived here to report the fire, he asked the factory manager to unlock the main door, but it was not done.
It’s been eight years, but our wounds are still fresh”.
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Rangers role In the case
The Baldia Factory case was initially filed against the owner of Ali Enterprise Factory, Abdul Aziz Bhaila, along with his two sons, Arshad and Shahid Bhai, the general manager and four watchmen for negligence.
However, the case took a different turn when Rangers filed a JIT report in the High Court in 2015, claiming that the factory was set on fire due to non-receipt of extortion. Declared.
After re-investigation in 2016, the police re-registered the case. Later that year, MQM in-charge Rehman Bhola was arrested and brought from abroad.
Demand of 200 Million or share in the factory
According to the statement, two or three months before the incident, in May-June 2012, Shahid Bhaila had met Majid Baig, brother of Asghar Baig, in-charge of MQM municipal sector, in the office of production manager Mansoor.
Majid said that the sector in-charge is now talking about taking crores of rupees from us. According to Bhaila, they ignored it as an attempt to increase the excise duty.
In the same period, Asghar Baig was removed and Rehman Bhola was appointed in-charge of municipal sector.
How did the fire start?
Accountant Abdul Majeed told JIT in his statement that around 8.30 pm on the night of the incident, Shahid Bhaila asked to bring the file from the office which was located near the warehouse of the warehouse.
At the same time he smelled a strange smell that he had never smelled before.
When he came out of the office, he saw sparks of fire and in the blink of an eye the flames rose.
He became frightened and went to the administration offices.
The director arrived with the staff and ordered the main switch to be switched off to avoid a short circuit.
Factory gatekeeper Arshad Mahmood told the JIT that he met with Zubair Chrya at 9 PM in the finishing department.
He told that Zubair gave some black envelops to 5 men who were along with him having some kind of substance.
They threw the envelops in the store room and left the factory.
After few seconds fire broke out every where and number of deaths were recorded.
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