KARACHI, March 28: While a police investigation to find the actual cause of the Empress Market blaze is under way, the Preedy police registered an arson attack case against unidentified suspects on Monday.

Dozens of shops in the historical Empress Market were destroyed in the fire which had broken out in the early hours of Sunday.

An FIR (216/2011) was registered against unidentified persons under Section 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house etc) and 34 (with common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Preedy police station on behalf of the state.

However, Saddar Town SSP Irshad Sehar told Dawn that it was premature to say whether the fire was the result of an arson attack or something else.

He said he had constituted a three-member team, headed by a DSP, to carry out a probe into the incident.

“Normally we insert Section 436 of the PPC in every fire incident…and in this case the shopkeepers' association had openly expressed suspicions that it was actually an arson attack.”

The SSP said that the FIR was necessary to initiate the process of compensation to the affected shopkeepers. However, when asked as to why the FIR was registered on behalf of the state, he replied that none of the shopkeepers had come forward to lodge the FIR and therefore the police registered the case on their own to avoid any further delay.

Sources said that although the police had constituted an inquiry team, there was a dire need to carry out a probe similar to the one ordered by the then chief secretary to ascertain the cause of fire in the 2009 Revenue Record Office fire incident.

The chief secretary had constituted a special police investigation team, which had scientifically proved that the fire at the revenue record office was an arson attack.

The police had collected samples of the ashes from the scene and had sent them to Lahore for a chemical analysis. The results showed presence of chemicals suggesting that it was arson, a senior officer associated with the investigation told Dawn .

CDGK's inquiry and

rehabilitation committees

The Karachi city government issued two notifications to set up an inquiry committee and a rehabilitation committee.

The inquiry committee will complete its findings within seven days and submit its report to Karachi District Coordination Officer Mohammad Husain Syed.

The members of the inquiry committee are: Executive District Officer Saifur Rehman, MPA Muqeem Alam, the chairman of the federation of Empress Market association, Abdul Bari Kakar, the president of dried fruit merchants association, Liaquat Ali, two officials of the city government, an official of the Sindh Building Control Authority and the chief fire officer, Saleem Ehtesham.

The inquiry committee will also make special recommendations within seven days to avert such incident in future.

Another committee — the rehabilitation and reconstruction committee — was also notified. It would suggest measures for expeditious reconstruction and rehabilitation of the shops burnt in the fire.

The committee comprises Revenue EDO Roshan Ali Shaikh, Works and Services EDO Rasheed Mughal, Additional EDO Matanat Ali Khan and officials of the SBCA, the city government and Saddar Town.

As the fire brigade officials had said that as many as 108 shops were gutted in the fire, Mr Kakar, the chairman of the Federation of Empress Market Association, disputed the claim saying that around 47 shops had been destroyed in the fire.

He said that the officials had counted each shutter. “There were several shutters for one shop.”

Mr Kakar said that Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani visited the Empress Market on Monday and assured his support for the shopkeepers.

He said that the shopkeepers had lost everything and they needed government support so that they could again become able to earn their livelihood.