Pakistan

Baldia factory fire caused by extortionists: JIT

Investigators take owners’ statements in Dubai, head to London to record their father’s statement

Our Correspondent October 09, 2015

The Baldia factory fire claimed the lives of 259 people on September 11, 2012, and investigations previously failed to uncover the reason behind the fire. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI:

Three years after the deadly fire claimed more than 250 lives, the investigators revealed that an extortionist group was behind the attack.

Exactly which group set the garment factory on fire to teach the owners a lesson for not paying extortion is a fact that continues to baffle the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe the city's worst industrial disaster.

The four-member investigation team, headed by DIG Sultan Khawaja and DIG Munir Shaikh reached Dubai on Sunday. They recorded the statements of the Bhaila brothers — Arshad and Shahid, the owners of the ill-fated factory Ali Enterprises — who had refused to visit Pakistan for the investigations.

Read: Baldia factory fire: Three years, as many reports and the trial goes on

Their statements were recorded separately, both on paper and in front of a camera, at the Pakistan consulate. The team will now fly to London to record the statement of their father. "The statements of the Bhaila brothers have been completed but we cannot share the details as they have requested us to keep their statement confidential," said Malik Abdul Wahid Khan, the press counsellor at the Pakistan consulate in Dubai.

Meanwhile, a senior police official, who is privy to the developments, told The Express Tribune that the Bhaila brothers claimed that the fire was not accidental. One extortionist group was behind the incident. "We had been providing them extortion money before the fire incident but the relations turned sour before the incident," the officer quoted the owners as saying.

"They [extortionists] warned us that they will set our factory ablaze as their demands were not being fulfilled."

The confessional statements do not, however, carry the name of a group or a political party that was making extortion demands.

Little progress to show

On September 11, 2012, Ali Enterprises caught fire and took away the lives of 259 workers trapped inside. Even though it has been three years, the investigators have to rely on the owners' claims to establish the cause of the fire. There is no scientific evidence.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, an inquiry team led by DIG Sultan Khawaja, who is heading the current JIT, declared that the fire was accidental. The investigations were shelved after this inquiry report until the Rangers submitted another report in the Sindh High Court and accused the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the incident.

Read: Are we waiting for another Baldia tragedy?

The Rangers quoted MQM worker Rizwan Qureshi, who was arrested in some other case, confessing that party activists set the factory ablaze after the owners refused to pay extortion. Qureshi was released on bail some time later and his whereabouts are unknown.

However, the MQM denied its involvement and termed the charges as 'fictitious' and 'biased'. It had also demanded a reinvestigation into the inferno. The Sindh government formed another JIT after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered reinvestigation during an apex committee meeting at Governor House in February this year.

Initially, the then Crime Branch AIG Khadim Hussain Bhatti was appointed as the chief of the new JIT but, by mid-March, he was replaced by the then Rapid Response Force chief DIG Aftab Pathan. Finally, DIG Khawaja was given task to once again probe the fire despite his refusal to investigate.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (2)

S.R.H. Hashmi | 8 years ago | Reply Needless to say, those responsible for the death of 259 workers, and in the manner that they died, deserve no sympathy and ought to be given exemplary punishment. However, before doing that, the cause of fire and culprits need to be determined, which seems unlikely through the mechanism of Joint investigation Teams (JITs) like has been the case so far. An initial inquiry by a team led by DIG Sultan Khawaja had found the fire to be accidental after which the case was shelved. Rangers submitted another report in the Sindh High Court and accused the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) for the incident. And later on, based on a confessional statement by an alleged MQM worker Rizwan Qureshi who was apprehended in some other case, the Rangers sent a report to the Sindh High Court claiming that Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists set the factory ablaze on the factory owners refusal to pay extortion money, which claim MQM rejected. So, yet another JIT was formed, with DIG Sultan Khawaja heading the team, with another DIG Munir Sheikh as part of the team despite Sultan Khawaja’s unwillingness to work in that capacity. And this latest JIT took the statements of Arshad and Shahid Bhaila in Dubai and is to fly to London to record the statement of their father who together own the factory. While details are not available, it is stated that Bhaila brothers claimed the fire not to be accidental. Without naming the group, they said that they had been paying extortion money before the fire incident but the relations turned sour before the incident. I am surprised at the fact that the effort so far has been to find just one culprit (an individual or a group), pass on all responsibility for the tragedy on to it, and wash hands off the whole affair. I would think that that would be an over-simplification of the case and patently unjust. We know that these days, even small establishments keep armed security guards. Surely the factory would or should have a few guarding the premises more so in the circumstances where the owners were under threat. So, how was it possible for someone to set the factory ablaze in their presence? All right, it could be a case of someone throwing a petrol bomb and driving away. But in that case, the fire would not have been so massive as to engulf the whole factory and cause so much loss of life and property. And what about fire-fighting gear like fire extinguishers and sand buckets etc which such establishments are required by law to keep? In our country, Fire brigades are usually late and even when they come, they don’t have fire-extinguishing foam and sometimes even water is short. This makes it all the more important to have some in-house fire-fighting capability. Such premises are also required to have fire exits to enable workers to escape in case of emergency. Now, what about government inspectors who are required to inspect the premises and ensure their compliance with these requirements? I read somewhere that government inspectors were told not to visit the factory and if it is true, the person issuing such orders also bears responsibility for these deaths. We also know that in case of such accidents, the natural tendency of the people is to run for safety but there were reports that the factory owners engaged the workers in saving their goods and by locking the doors from inside, stopped them from escaping, which magnified the tragedy enormously. In such a case, they also share responsibility for the deaths. Moreover, apart from government inspectors demonstrating criminal negligence by not ensuring the existence of fire-fighting equipment, safe exits etc, the owners had an independent responsibility in this regard which they failed to discharge. I hope this tendency to find a quick-fix solution will be avoided and a thorough investigation made to ensure that all those found guilty bear their proportionate share of the blame, and of course the punishment. Karachi

ishrat salim | 8 years ago | Reply How come the main accused was given bail? Then the accused is now missing, surely has been sent out of the country, so, the result will be back to zero. This can only happen in Pakistan. However, now that the matter is with the Rangers, they will surely follow up.

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