KARACHI, Jan 10: The preliminary investigation by police into the North Karachi blaze that claimed 40 lives disclosed that the fire was caused “incidentally”.

Sources privy to the investigation told Dawn that so far the probe into the tragedy showed that it was a case of “incidental fire” as no evidence was found to suggest foul play behind it.

They said that police found no eye-witness to suggest that it was a case of arson.

An inquiry team, headed by DIG West Sardar Abdul Majeed Dasti, and comprising SPs Dr Mohammed Farooq and Khurrum Waris, was formed to probe the incident.

Capital City Police Chief Waseem Ahmed, however, told Dawn that the investigation into the incident was still being conducted and the investigators were yet to reach a final conclusion. “We are probing the matter from all aspects and it will be premature to establish anything at the moment,” he added. Meanwhile, sources said that police interviewed the surviving victims specifically to find out if they were ever threatened to vacate the premises by anyone. They said none of the survivors alleged or claimed that they had ever received any threats for occupying the land illegally.

The sources quoted the survivors as telling them that they had occupied the land some 15 years ago and no one ever came to them to evacuate them from the property.

They said the police so far failed to track down the real owners of the land. Insiders said that the police investigators had retrieved the record of some other property from the authorities mistakenly and they (police) would try to get the record of the original property on Monday.

At least 40 people, 22 of them children, died when a fire engulfed about two dozen huts in the city’s North Karachi area after Thursday midnight.