Fireworks factory owner among the blast victims

Death toll hits 10; police arrest one, vow strict action on illegal trade and unsafe celebrations

HYDERABAD:

The man whose illegal fireworks factory in Hyderabad exploded on November 15, killing 10 persons as of the Monday’s updated death toll, has emerged to be one of the deceased. The DNA test, performed at the lab of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, has helped the police identify the three unknown burnt corpses which include Asad Khan Yousufzai, the factory’s owner.

45-year-old Shria and 35-year-old Naeem are the two other deceased, SSP Adeel Hussain Chandio told The Express Tribune. Fatally injured Sheeraz Sanaullah and Naeem Yousuf, with 90 to 100 per cent burns, were shifted to Dr Ruth Pfau Hospital, Karachi, where they died on Sunday. Another very critically burnt patient, 30-year-old Waqas Arshad, breathed his last in the Liaquat University Hospital in Hyderabad.

The police had earlier identified six of the deceased persons while identity of three others was not know by Sunday. The police have declared arrest of one of the five men accused in the incident’s FIR while Asad, the prime accused, has died.

The GOR police, from whose limits Shakeel Pareyhar alias Punjabi was arrested, produced the suspect before the Anti Terrorism Court on Monday. The court granted seven-day physical remand of Punjabi, who is fifth in the list of the accused men as cited in the FIR.

The SSP has transferred the incident’s inquiry to SHO GOR Inspector Mazhar Soomro, in whose limits Punjabi was rounded up. The explosion had occurred in Major Baqar Goth in Latifabad unit number 10 in the jurisdiction of B-Section police station.

MQM-P has urged the provincial government to compensate the aggrieved families. “The local authorities have done nothing except cosmetic actions [against illegally operating dangerous businesses] after the blast,” said MQM-P MNA Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani. “It is astonishing how such a big facility processing explosives remained out of the police radar.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Zainul Abedin Memon on Monday at a meeting directed the police to lodge FIRs against people using fireworks or firing aerial gunshots at wedding and other celebratory occasions. He reiterated the past orders of closing all wedding halls, banquets and hotels by 12 midnight.