Karachi police on Tuesday arrested the owners and an official of a factory in Mehran Town after a local court cancelled an interim pre-arrest bail granted to them in a case pertaining to the death of 16 workers in a fire incident, Dawn reported.
Earlier on August 27, the fire in M/s BM Luggage had killed 16 workers and police had booked factory owner Hassan Meetha alias Ali Meetha, building owner Faisal Tariq, its three supervisors — Syed Imran Ali Zaidi, Zafar and Rehan — and watchman Syed Zarin over their alleged involvement in the case. The case was registered under Sections 322 (manslaughter) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
According to the FIR, the deaths took place on the upper portion of the building that allegedly lacked any emergency exit. “The factory building has been constructed in a manner that none can exit in case of emergency while no emergency alarm system was installed in it,” added the FIR.
On Tuesday during the court hearing, the judge noted that the incident was not confined to the immediate cause of the fire, but to all the acts and omissions that form the basis of the eruption of fire, its spread, the absence of an escape exit, the defective structure of the building and its situation, the absence of a fire-resistive system and the lack of proper response from civil defence authorities.
According to Dawn, the suspects, who were present inside the courtroom, tried to escape after the judge pronounced his verdict, but police officials took them into custody.
