ON Sep 11, 2012, a garments factory (Ali Enterprises) at Baldia Town, Karachi, was torched using a chemical substance in which 264 male and female workers were burnt alive, while 60 were seriously injured.

Thus the incident is probably the worst case of arson and sabotage in the recent history of the country. I would like to offer my deepest condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families.

An anti-terrorism court has announced its verdict in the case sentencing two former MQM activists to death and awarding life imprisonment to the four gatekeepers.

For the past two weeks, the national print and electronic media has been dominated by public outrage over the Lahore-Sialkot motorway tragedy.

There is no denying the fact that the motorway rape case is extremely tragic and heartrending. But the Baldia Town arson is far more heinous in nature and magnitude. I would like civil society activists to come forward and demand a similar execution of the criminals in the Baldia Town case.

A middle-tier MQM leader and three businessmen have been exonerated by the court owing to lack of evidence. Consequently, the MQM has distanced itself from the case. It will be unrealistic to assume that a sector commander level activist of a political party could plan and execute such an act of sabotage on his own.

Apparently, the pawns have been sacrificed, while the knights have managed to slip out of the cauldron. There certainly is a need to dig out the bigger truth behind this dreadful act of sabotage. May I request the prime minister to do the needful?

Imran Aslam Warraich
Sargodha

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THE legal maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ was never truer than in the verdict given by the anti-terrorism court pertaining to the Baldia factory arson case in which 264 lives were lost back in 2012.

The verdict was not only delayed but failed to punish the masterminds. Apart from awarding the death sentence to two low-level MQM workers and life sentence to four gate-keepers, regretfully the main culprits who ordered this cold-blooded murder went scot-free.

One of the accused, Hammad Siddiqui, is ostensibly on the run even today. We all know the reign of terror during MQM heyday. One phone call from the maestro from London and a city of 20 million people would come to a standstill. Extortion, killings, ‘china cuttings’ and kidnapping were the order of the day.

All those who were part of the MQM in any capacity in the past should be brought to trial as these very people who now have high posts in similar parties with a different name were a part and parcel of the killings and mayhem when they ruled the roost.

The verdict speaks volumes of our justice system and encourages anti-social elements in our society leading to more violence and disorder.

Jaffer Naqvi
Lahore

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2020