ATC to hear Baldia factory owners via video-link

By Our Correspondent
July 24, 2019

An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday approved the prosecution’s request to record the testimony of the owners of Ali Enterprises via video link in the Baldia factory fire case.

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The Rangers’ special public prosecutor had requested the ATC-VII to record statements of Ali Enterprises owners, Arshad, Shahid and Abdul Aziz Bhaila, through video link as they were in the United Arab Emirates and could not come to Pakistan to record their testimonies for security reasons.

Two-hundred-and-sixty people were killed on September 11, 2012 in a blaze at the Ali Enterprises, a garments factory located in Baldia Town . Authorities alleged that the fire was caused by people associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) over the factory owners’ refusal to pay extortion to them.

Ten suspects, the then MQM’s industries and commerce minister Rauf Siddiqui, local office-bearer Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, Zubair alias Charya, Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood, Ali Muhammad, Umar Hasan Qadri, Abdul Sattar Khan and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum, have been charged for the offence.

One key suspect, the then in-charge of the MQM’s Karachi Tanzimi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, is still absconding. According to the prosecution, the fire was set on his instruction because he was infuriated over the factory owners’ refusal to pay the demanded money.

The court wrote a letter to the Pakistan Consulate Dubai to make arrangements to record the statement and inform back accordingly. Meanwhile, it directed the Investigation officer to furnish the joint investigation team’s report on the incident on July 29.

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