KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Thursday partially recorded statements of eight accused persons, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Rauf Siddiqui, in the Baldia factory fire case.

More than 260 workers were burnt alive in the multistorey building of the Ali Enterprises garment factory on Sept 11, 2012.

Nine accused — including then provincial minister for commerce and industries Rauf Siddiqui, then MQM sector-in-charge Abdul Rehman, alias Bhola; Zubair, alias Chariya — have been charged with allegedly setting ablaze the ill-fated industrial unit with the help of its four gatekeepers — Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad.

On Thursday, the matter was fixed before the ATC-VII judge for recording statements of the accused persons, as required under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after the prosecution rested its side.

Defendants given questionnaires, each containing some 380 queries, to answer

Rauf Siddiqui with seven others, including three Hyderabad-based businesspersons — Umar Hasan Qadri, Dr Abdul Sattar Khan and Iqbal Adeeb Khanum — and employees of the industrial unit — Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, Arshad Mehmood and Ali Mohammad — appeared before the court on bail. Two detained accused, Rehman and Zubair, were produced from prison.

The judge provided questionnaires, each containing some 380 queries related to the case, to the accused to answer, except Rehman and Zubair. Their defence counsel failed to turn up to receive the questionnaires.

The court partially recorded statements of seven accused persons and adjourned the hearing till Jan 11 to further record their testimonies.

In November, the prosecution had closed its side after recording testimonies of 400 witnesses and examining other material evidence in the present case.

In February 2018, the trial court had indicted them on the charges of terrorism, extortion and arson. But they pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

The prosecution alleged that they had acted on the instruction of the then head of the MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqui, as the factory owners failed to pay Rs250 million protection money and ‘partnership’ in the business.

Hammad Siddiqui, the alleged mastermind, and Ali Hasan Qadri have been declared proclaimed offenders in the present case.

Initially, owner of the factory Abdul Aziz Bhaila and his two sons, Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, a general manager and four gatekeepers were charge-sheeted by the police for allegedly committing premeditated murder and ‘negligence’ to the workers’ safety.

However, the case took a new turn in February 2015 when Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, submitted a joint investigation team (JIT) report in the Sindh High Court (SHC), which revealed that the factory was set on fire after its owners failed to pay “protection money”.

Subsequently, the reinvestigation of the case was ordered in March 2015 through a JIT. In the meantime, the SHC directed the ATC to expedite the trial and submit a progress report on every hearing.

However, after a lengthy reinvestigation, the police filed a supplementary investigation report in August 2016 in which they only charge-sheeted Hammad Siddiqui, Bhola and their three to four unknown accomplices and did not send the 13 other suspects, including those proposed by the JIT, for trial.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2020