F.P. Report
KARACHI: Accused of Karachi’s Baldia garments factory fire were first got doped and then burned fire in the factory, said eye-witness Arshad in his statement recorded in an Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi on Tuesday.
The biggest incident in the history of Pakistan took place on September 12, 2012 in the Ali Enterprises factory located in Baldia town, Karachi in which 259 people were burnt alive.
Initially the incident was declared a firework. Later on, the Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) declared it as terrorism and said in a report that the factory was burnt by not giving the extortion.
Arshad was working as an electrician in the factory. On the day of the incident Zubair Charya asked him to meet in the evening there Zubair’s friends are visiting, said Arshad.
Three of the five men were looking from Baloch tribe from there face skeleton and two were Urdu speaking, Zubair asked to take them into the washroom, where they got doped along with Zubair, said the eye-witness.
Arshad was working on the ninth floor, when he looked back Zubair brought out a black color bag from his pocket, shackled it and threw on the garments, in the response the fire took place there.
The other five men also did the same and the fire burnt in warehouse, which headed to second floor after sometimes there was also torched while there was no fire on first floor, Arshad said in his statement.
When they were going to extinguish fire on the roof, they found Zubair and five others in the canteen while intoxicated, the suspects tried to stop them along with other 20/25 fellows but failed, said the eye-witness.
Zubair Charya was a finishing in-charge in the factory. The video statement of Rahman Bhaula is also there, in which he admitted that chairman of the MQM organizing committee Hammad Siddique ordered him to burn the factory because they are not giving the extortion of 25 crore, then Hammad handed over the chemical locker to Zubair. The Chairman escaped after the incident, later on, the Interpol captured him from Bangkok.
The public prosecutor of Baldia Factory said that there are two suspects in the incident, Zubair Charya and Rehman Bhaula, both are in jail.
The JIT pointed out three suspects who are involved in extortions after the incident and they are the knowers of MQM London former leader Anis Qaimkhani. The three suspects get the extortion of 5 crore and 5.8 million from the factory owner’s and said that the MQM will support them. All of them three are free on intermediate bail. 375 witnesses recorded their statements in this case, 342 out of them being declared un-important statements.
The suspects Zubair and Rehman lawyer asked the eye-witness that, why he recorded his statement so late
He went to Rangers to record his statement, there were life threats to him, he went to Punjab, but when JIT called him, he first time came to Karachi in 2015 after the incident and recorded the same statement to them, Arshad replied.
It is remembered that the suspect Zubair who belong to MQM was capture from Saudi Arabia back in 2016. Zubair’s lawyer filed an application of bail in court he has no connection with this incident, but the court rejected the application.
