The bodies were shifted to the villages by Edhi and other ambulance services. The victims were Abdul Hameed, Sanwal Hussain, Dillo, son of Imam Bakhsh of Jhabail village, Rai Muhammad Iqbal, Mujahid, son of Khadim Hussain, Pervez Iqbal, Muhammad Pervaiz, son of Ghulam Sarwar, Abdul Rauf, Nadir, Majoo, sons of Muhammad Hashim, Rafiq and his son Shoaib and Amir, son of Ghulam Mustafa of Bailaywala village.

Relatives of the workers had been waiting for their bodies for the last two days. Thousands of people from across the district visited the workers’ villages and expressed their sympathies with the bereaved families.

Meanwhile, Muzaffargarh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Rashid Sheikh demanded the government announce financial support for the families of victims. He said about 100 victims belonged to southern Punjab and held the government agencies responsible for the tragedy. He said that government departments pressurised industrialists every month to extort money in the name of implementation of rules, but did not pay attention to implementation of the rules in true sense.

He wondered how a factory without proper safety arrangements was allowed to work. He said that the incident should be thoroughly and impartially investigated to ensure whether it was sabotage or activity of extortionists. He said the incident would give a bad name to the country and become a propaganda tool in the hands of those who never missed a chance to defame and distort the image of Pakistan.

He feared that the incident would have a negative impact on exports, which was already on the decline, if steps were not taken to provide security to factory workers. He expressed his sympathies with the bereaved families.