HYDERABAD: The Qaumi Awami Tehreek president Ayaz Latif Palijo has urged all political parties with armed wings including the MQM to disband the wings and demanded the government arrest all culprits involved in the Baldia Town factory inferno and hang them.

He said that a suspect who aligned himself with MQM confessed to having burnt down the factory on the party’s orders after the factory owner did not pay Rs20 million extortion. At least 259 workers burnt to death in the inferno, he said.

“Why the joint investigation team’s report was not disclosed earlier? Why the government had been sitting on it for three years,” he said while speaking at a press conference at the Palijo House on Sunday.

He said that all culprits involved in the tragedy should be arrested and hanged and all the condemned convicts should also be executed.

Mr Palijo said that PPP’s move to invite MQM to join the government at this juncture was anti-people. The QAT demanded that all the parties which had armed wings including MQM should disband such wings, he said.

He called for speeding up targeted operation in Karachi and punishing all terrorists, criminals without any discrimination.

The factory fire was only one of the tragic incidents which was also allegedly perpetrated by MQM activists. The MQM’s name was also involved in the incidents of May 12, 2007, April 9, 2011, and May 22, 2012, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2015

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