Karachi mall fire: Court approves physical remand of key suspects

KARACHI: The Judicial Magistrate East on Friday approved the physical remand of the five individuals allegedly responsible for the fire that erupted inside RJ Shopping Mall at Karachi’s Rashid Minhas Road, which killed nearly a dozen people, ARY News reported. 

The east zone police have produced the five key suspects – named Imran Adnan (owner of the software house), Sultan and Faizan (part of the mall’s administration), and Abid Shah (security in-charge) – before the Judicial Magistrate East court.

READ: Key suspects nabbed in Karachi shopping mall fire case

The Investigation Officer (IO) sought a 10-day physical remand of the arrested accused.

The court after hearing the argument of both sides rejected the discharge plea of the suspects and approved the five-day physical remand.

The court in its order demanded a progress report from the investigating officer on the next hearing.

Preliminary report

A preliminary report prepared by the Fire Brigade Department has stated that there was “no kind of public safety system” in place at the RJ shopping mall in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area.

According to the report, emergency exit doors, exit signs, existing preventive mechanisms and emergency lighting or power backup were “not available” in the ill-fated building.

“No kind of public safety system was available in RJ Mall, including fire safety/fighting equipment and emergency exits,” the report said.

It added that the department did not receive timely information about the fire and the third and fourth floors were “burning severely” when the fire brigade reached the scene. It said that staff faced difficulty in firefighting operations due to the “intense smoke”, adding that the fire’s cause could not be determined.

The report said that the employees of the offices located in the building were rescued by smashing through doors, adding that all 11 deaths occurred due to “smoke inhalation and suffocation”.