BANGKOK: A Pakistani man suspected of starting a devastating factory fire in Karachi four years ago that killed over 250 people has been arrested in Bangkok, Thai police said on Saturday.

Abdul Rehman, 46, was detained at a hotel on Friday evening, said Thailand’s Interpol chief.

“Thai Interpol tracked this suspect following an arrest warrant sought by the Pakistani authorities,” Major General Apichart Suriboonya told AFP.

“He will be repatriated as soon as Pakistan is ready,” he added.

He said Rehman was suspected of being part of a criminal gang that was extorting the owners of a Karachi garment factory. The gang torched the facility when the owners refused to pay $200,000, he said.

The fire at the Ali Enterprises factory in September 2012 was one of Pakistan’s worst industrial disasters. A judicial probe into the blaze was damning, pointing to a lack of emergency exits, poor safety training for workers, the packing in of machinery and the failure of government inspectors to spot any of these faults.

In Karachi, officials said that the held suspect would be brought back to the country by the Federal Investigation Agency in a couple of days, adds our staff reporter.

“Rehman is an absconder in the Baldia factory fire case,” said Karachi police chief Mushtaq Mahar. “His custody will be handed over to the Sindh police for further investigation and legal disposal after he is brought back to the country.”

He explained that under the existing laws, the FIA was authorised to arrest an absconder from other countries with the help of Interpol.

Two days ago, the FIA had approached the interior ministry for a no-objection certificate for the arrest of the absconding suspect Rehman.

In the letter dated Dec 1, the FIA asked the interior minister to allow its two officials — deputy director Badaruddin Baloch and Inspector Rehmatullah Domki — to go to Bangkok to arrest “Pakistani national namely Abdul Rehman” in the Baldia factory fire case.

FIA sources said that the team would leave Karachi for Bangkok next week to formally arrest the suspect.

Suspect Rehman’s alleged involvement in the case came to light in February last year when the paramilitary Rangers submitted in the Sindh High Court a report stating that a suspect, Rizwan Qureshi, told interrogators that the Baldia factory fire was an act of arson.

He was said to be a “sector in charge” of the Baldia Town sector of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s organisational structure in 2012.

The party has now been divided in three factions — the MQM-London, MQM-Pakistan and the Pak Sarzameen Party — which demanded a high-level transparent probe and exemplary punishment for whosoever involved in the killing of over 250 workers.

Social media was abuzz with reports that the held suspect was now affiliated with the PSP.

A party membership form with Rehman’s photograph and pictures of his family members with PSP leaders Mustafa Kamal and Anis Kaimkhani were circulating on Twitter.

However, Mr Kamal told reporters in Lahore that Rehman was the “sector in charge of the MQM” and he was never part of the PSP.

MQM-Pakistan leader Rauf Siddiqui told the media in Karachi that he was not aware whether Rehman was a party worker or not.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2016