FAISALABAD: The Nishatabad police have registered a case against four people, three factory owners among them, on the allegation of illegally installing a boiler the explosion of which led to the killing of five labourers on Feb 11.

Ten people were injured in the explosion and police registered a case under section 21 of the Boilers and Pressure Vessels Ordinance, 2002, and section 322 and 427 of PPC against the violators after 10 days on the complaint of the boiler inspector.

The officials kept pending registration of the case on the plea that they were awaiting the family members of the victims so that all the culprits could be brought to book. They eventually ‘succumbed to the government pressure’ and entertained the application submitted by boiler inspector Imran Shoaib.

A boiler of MA Processing exploded early on Feb 11 resulting in collapse of the roof. The labourers working there were trapped under the rubble and a team of Rescue 1122 retrieved the bodies of four labourers and shifted 11 injured to the Allied Hospital.

One of the injured breathed his last in hospital the next day. The applicant said he had issued a boiler inspection notice to the owners of MA Processing on July 8, 2019. The factory owners on July 24 after depositing the inspection fee submitted a letter to his office. He said after deposit of the inspection fee, another letter for boiler inspection was issued to the factory on Aug 3, however, the owners did not reply to this letter.

Police take the plea that they were awaiting complaints

Yet another letter for the inspection was issued on Sept 3 and in response to that letter, the factory owners replied on Oct 20 that they had sold the boiler in question. The factory owners said the boiler had been sold to broker Munawar Hussain of Darul Ahsan.

On Nov 18, the applicant said he had paid a surprise visit to the factory and found the illegal boiler installed in the factory. He said a letter had been issued to the factory for boiler inspection the same day and no reply was given.

Two more letters of Dec 24 and Jan 14 were issued to the owners as reminders for inspection, he said, adding that no reply was submitted as the owners did earlier. He said a final notice was issued to the mill on Jan 29 for inspection and the owners had been warned of legal action.

Sources said the government tried to have the case registered against factory owners Shehbaz Afzal, Mohammad Shoaib and Shakeel and Mian Javeed, a boiler manufacturer of Darul Ahsan. However, the police officials raised the question that how a case could be registered on the complaint of a boiler inspector who was under suspension and failed to perform his duty efficiently.

They said the government was under the impression that registration of a case on the complaint of victims’ families would provide an opportunity to the opposition to exploit the issue by keeping the applicant of the case on board. To quell all such efforts, they said, police had registered a case on the application which was submitted immediately after the boiler blast.

An officer told Dawn on the request that he not be named that police were facing pressure to ensure justice as the boiler inspector also seemed at fault. He said registration of a case on the complaint of the victims’ families was vital to ensure justice as police would have been in a better position to grill the inspector as well.

However, he said now it would be difficult for the investigation officers to grill the inspector and file any concrete report against him as he was hiding behind the plea of notices he issued.

“Why he did not move against the owners to seal the boiler if he knew it was illegal,” he wondered.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2020