Court orders placing two suspects’ names on ECL

An anti-terrorism court ordered on Friday that the names of two suspects in Baldia Town factory fire case be placed on the exit control list.

The court directed that letters be sent to the interior minister, the Federal Investigation Agency and other authorities concerned to place the names of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s ex-Karachi Tanzimi Committee chief Hammad Siddiqi and the party’s former Baldia Town sector in-charge Rehman alias Bhola on the ECL.

It also ordered the investigation officer to ensure that the two suspects were arrested and produced before the court.

On October 18, the ATC had directed a senior police official to appear before the court in connection with some queries about the case’s investigation.

The official was part of the joint investigation team that had reinvestigated the Baldia factory fire case after the factors of extortion and arson had surfaced.

The court has been asking questions about the role of the owners, whose names were deleted from the case and described as an affected party and witnesses instead of co-accused.

The court also asked the prosecution to explain as to under which direction should the trial be conducted.

It underlined that the previous FIR of the case showed the owners and some employees as the accused but they wee later declared innocent by police under the light of a new JIT.

Two-hundred-and-sixty people were killed and several others injured when a fire broke out at the Ali Enterprises garments factory in Baldia Town on September 11, 2012, allegedly because of the use of accelerants and a lack of safety arrangements.

The court had also warned that it could issue non-bailable warrants against SSP Sajid Sudozai, the investigation officer of the case, if he failed to appear before the court.

Sudozai, through a low-ranking police officer, had informed the court that he could not make it as he was busy with the by-election for PS-11 in Shikarpur.

The judge questioned as to how could the SSP be busy in Shikarpur when he was posted in Kamber-Shahdadkot. The police officer representing him clarified that Sudozai had recently been given the additional charge of the SSP Shikarpur.

The judge had also reprimanded the lawyer representing the factory owners, Abdul Aziz Bhaila and his sons Arshad and Shahid, for making changes in the written plea.