Farooq Sattar says none of the five JITs has named Siddiqui as suspect
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has denied that its member of the Sindh Assembly and former provincial minister, Rauf Siddiqui, was involved in the Baldia factory fire that killed 259 labourers over four years ago.
Speaking at a press conference at the temporary head office of the party in BIP Colony on Monday, MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar condemned “the fresh bid” to implicate Siddiqui, along with key suspect Rehman alias Bhola, a former Baldia sector incharge of the party, in the fire incident case, saying that the September 11, 2012, fire was “the worst tragedy”.
“We have been condemning this anti-human incident , which was a horrific barbarity in which people were burnt alive. We condemn that incident even today and demand that it be investigated transparently and the culprits be brought to justice,” a statement quoted him as telling media persons.
Accompanied by Rauf Siddiqui, Faisal Sabzwari, Zakir Qureshi, Faiz Mohammad Faizi, Syed Aminul Haq and Adil Khan , Sattar said that if any member of his party was found involved, even if they were a sector incharge or part of any organisational structure of the party, they should be brought to justice and no leniency should be shown towards them.
“None of the five joint investigation teams that have looked into the incident so far has ever named Rauf Siddiqui as a suspect.”
Sattar added that Siddiqui got an FIR registered against the owners of the factory in accordance with the law and “did his best to ensure they did not get bail, but we respect the decision of the court to grant them bail”.
The MQM-P leader offered to cooperate with the law enforcers in catching the real culprits. He mentioned that Siddiqui, who was his party’s provincial minister at that time, had resigned over the incident.
Speaking to media persons, Rauf Siddiqui rejected all the charges levelled against him by Bhola but admitted that he did put pressure for the registration of a case against the factory owners. He said he had directed the secretary and the SITE managing director to lodge an FIR against the owners.
Siddiqui said he also played an active role in getting compensation for the families of the victims.
He rejected Bhola’s allegations in the latter’s reported confessional statement that he and Hammad Siddiqui had received Rs50 million from the owners of the factory after the incident.
He claimed that before the tragedy occurred, he did not even know the names of the factory owners.
Siddiqui described the allegations as a conspiracy to malign him. “I myself demand that whoever is involved in killing the workers by setting fire to the factory should be punished.”
He said he was ready to face investigations in this regard.
On December 22 Bhola confessed before a judicial magistrate to his involvement in the arson attack on the factory.
He was arrested in Bangkok with the help of Interpol earlier this month and the Federal Investigation Agency brought him back last week.
Police produced him before the court of a judicial magistrate (West) for his confessional statement. Magistrate Abid Ali Lakho recorded the statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Bhola reportedly admitted that he with Zubair, alias Charya, set the factory ablaze on the instruction of then chief of the MQM organising committee, Hammad Siddiqui, after the factory owners had refused to pay Rs250 million in extortion.
After recording the confessional statement, the magistrate sent the suspect to jail on judicial remand till December 29 and directed the investigating officer to submit a supplementary investigation report in the antiterrorism court-II.
Initially, owner of the factory, Abdul Aziz Bhaila, and his two sons Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, general manager Mansoor and three gatekeepers were charge-sheeted for their alleged negligence. However, a reinvestigation was ordered in March 2015 through a joint investigation team after it was disclosed in an earlier JIT report of suspect Rizwan Qureshi, submitted to the Sindh High Court in February 2015, that the factory was set on fire because its owners had failed to pay protection money.