Baldia factory case: Convicts appeal sentences in SHC

KARACHI: Two suspects sentenced to death in the Baldia factory fire case on Wednesday appealed against their conviction in Sindh High Court (SHC).

Abdul Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Charya were sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on 22nd September in the high-profile arson case. Both were members of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM).

The convicts have filed an appeal through their lawyers and pleaded the high court to strike down their conviction. They stated that the ATC ignored key evidence while deciding the case.

The ATC had convicted Bhola and Charya on eleven counts handing them death sentences on two counts. The factory’s four employees – Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad – were found guilty of aiding the convicts in carrying out the arson attack and convicted to life imprisonment.

The court acquitted MQM-P leader Rauf Siddiqui for lack of evidence, while Hammad Siddiqui has been declared a proclaimed offender in the case. Four others Umar Hasan Qadri, Dr Abdul Sattar Khan and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum were also acquitted.

Over 260 workers were burnt alive when the multi-storey garment factory was set on fire in Baldia Town on 11th September 2012, making it the deadliest industrial blaze in Pakistan’s history. The court has announced the much-delayed verdict after more than eight years. The trial was conducted in the judicial complex inside the central prison.

On 5th July, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) had stated in its conclusive report that the incident was an act of terrorism. The investigators had revealed in the 27-page report that the factory had been torched over non-payment of Rs250 million extortion.

The JIT stated had also sought to provide protection to the witnesses of the incident. It had emerged that Hammad Siddiqui and Rehman Bhola were directly involved in the incident.

The JIT members had found out that many elements attempted internally and externally influence the investigation process in order to benefit the people behind the carnage.

The two main suspects acted on the instructions of the then chief of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, over the non-payment of extortion by the factory’s owners.

Factory owner Abdul Aziz Bhaila, his two sons Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, a general manager and four gatekeepers were initially charged for alleged negligence in the inferno.

In February 2015, the Pakistan Rangers Sindh submitted a joint investigation team (JIT) report in the Sindh High Court which revealed that the factory was set on fire after its owners failed to pay extortion and a reinvestigation was ordered.

In March 2016, the JIT recommended that a new case be registered under the anti-terrorism law. In December that year, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola was extradited after being arrested in Bangkok through Interpol.

During interrogation and his confessional statement before a magistrate, Rehman disclosed that he had instructed Zubair and others to set the factory ablaze on the instructions of Hammad Siddiqui. He also alleged Rauf Siddiqui registered a case against the owners of the factory.