ATC issues written verdict in Baldia factory fire case

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Tuesday handed down death sentences to two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists, Zubair alias Charya and Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, in Baldia factory fire case, ARY News reported. 

In its written verdict, the court declared former in-charge of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Hassan Qadri as proclaimed offenders over their perpetual absence from the trial proceedings.

 

The ATC ordered to file a case against Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Hassan Qadri over their alleged involvement in the incident. The court also ordered to issue lifetime arrest warrants for Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Hassan Qadri in the factory fire case.

Read: ATC reserves verdict in Baldia factory fire tragedy case

Three gatekeepers of the factory, Fazal Mehmood, Arshad Mehmood, and Ali Mohammad, and manager Shahrukh were handed life imprisonment for abetment.

However, the court acquitted MQM leader Rauf Siddiqui, then-provincial minister for commerce and industries, Iqbal Adeel Khanum and Abdul Sattar Khan in the factory inferno case

Earlier today, strict security arrangements have been made in and around the court’s building and entry to unauthorised persons were closed in the court.

The jail officials produced two accused persons including Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Charya before the ATC in Baldia factory inferno case. Moreover, a senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Rauf Siddiqui also arrived in the court.