Kharak Blast: Court tells police to re-open case

The Lahore High Court directed police to re-investigate the Kharak factory blast.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed police to re-investigate the Kharak factory blast and submit a report on a petition seeking cancellation of an FIR filed against the factory owners. The petitioners, Zaheer and others, contended that in his written reply to the Supreme Court, the chief secretary had said that the Kharak incident was an accident and registration of a murder case against the petitioners was illegal. They prayed to the court to cancel the cases against them. Police officials told the court that the district attorney had asked them to register murder complaints against the factory owners. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court ordered the police concerned to reinvestigate the case in a transparent manner and submit a report on March 20. Twenty people died in a gas cylinder blast at the factory last month.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 29^th, 2012.