Baldia factory fire: MQM's Rauf Siddiqui withdraws bail plea

Police did not charge him as a facilitator to the crime due to lack of evidence

KARACHI: Rauf Siddiqui, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmaker who is one of the prime suspects in the Baldia factory inferno saga, withdrew on Wednesday his bail application after the police did not charge him for lack of evidence.

Two-hundred-and-sixty-workers were killed and many others were injured after a fire broke out at Ali Enterprises garments factory, dubbed the Baldia factory for its location in Baldia Town, on September 11, 2012. Earlier, the incident was deemed an accident which turned into carnage due to lack of safety measures. However, in February, 2015, it emerged as an alleged act of terrorism.

The MQM is the party that has been assigned responsibility for the incident on the grounds that some of its leaders were allegedly involved in demanding extortion from the factory owners, setting their factory on fire over non-payment and again extorting to save them from the prosecution.



Rauf was the minister for commerce and industry when the incident occurred. The prosecution maintains that Hammad Siddiqui, the then powerful Karachi Tanzimi Committee head in the MQM, through his frontmen had demanded the factory owners, Abdul Aziz Bhaila and his sons Shahid Bhaila and Arshad Bhaila, pay him Rs250 million in extortion.

Over their refusal, it says that Hammad tasked MQM Baldia Town sector incharge Abdul Rehman alias Bhola with setting the factory on fire. Rehman allegedly took his men to the factory and started the fire with some chemicals. After the fire they also allegedly prevented workers from starting rescue work.

The prosecution cites the latest joint interrogation team report, which termed the fire an act of terrorism. In it, Rauf has been assigned an alleged role of facilitating the extortion and threatening the factory owners.

The lawmaker, through his lawyer, withdrew his bail application after the police failed to charge him with any of these above mentioned felonies. The special public prosecutor, Sajid Mehmoob Shaikh, who represents the Rangers, told the court that the police had just put him in the second column of the charge sheet in blue ink and the court could summon him if sufficient evidence surfaces against him.



Meanwhile, Rehman, through his lawyer, moved a bail application on which the court issued a notice to the prosecution to file arguments on the next hearing on July 29.