KARACHI  -  Nine prosecution witnesses recorded their testimonies to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the Baldia factory fire case on Friday. The ATC conducted the trial at the Judicial Complex inside the Karachi Central Jail where heirs of the deceased appeared and recorded their statements.

The accused, including former Sindh minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Rauf Siddiqui, Abdul Rehman alias Bhola and Zubair alias Charya, were presented in the court.

The heirs of the deceased workers who were burnt to death at the factory on Sept 11, 2012, were recording their statements and said it was very difficult for them to recognize the bodies of their loved ones as they were severely burnt when the rescuers finally retrieved them from the building. They said they went through the lengthy procedures of DNA collection and matching before they came to know their relatives had died.

The court recorded their statements, adjourned the hearing till October 3, and summoned other prosecution witnesses in the case. Besides, the court issued notice to the prosecution, sought comments on acquittal application filed by MQM lawmaker Rauf Siddiqui, the then industrial minister.

At the last hearing, the prosecution witnesses stated that they heard the news about the fire at the Ali Enterprises and rushed to the site but found the building up in flames and the rescuers trying to douse the fire. Around 250 workers of a garments factory in Baldia Town were killed in 2012 when a fire broke out in the factory and they couldn’t escape.

The prosecution indicted as many as nine accused in the case and alleged that they committed the crime on the direction of the then head of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee Hammad Siddiqui after the factory owners refused to pay extortion.

The court has already declared Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Hasan Kadri proclaimed offenders.

Earlier, one of the main accused, Rehman Bhola, had confessed his crime and admitted that he along with Zubair and others had set fire to the factory on the instructions of Hammad after the factory owners refused to pay extortion money.

Bhola had alleged that after the incident, Rauf allegedly got a case registered against the owners of the industrial unit. Later, Bhola said he came to know that Rauf and Hammad had received Rs40 million to Rs50 million from the owners to tone down the case against them.

However, in December 2017 he retracted his statement, claiming that he did not record any statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He claimed that the authorities had forced him to confess his involvement in the case.  An offender, Ali Hasan Kadri, and two others were booked for allegedly using the money extorted from the owners of the Ali Enterprises on the pretext of compensation for victims while the gatekeepers were accused of allegedly locking the exit points.

Initially, the police had charge-sheeted the owners, including Abdul Aziz Bhaila and his sons Arshad and Shahid as well as some employees of ill-fated industrial unit in the tragic incident.

However, reinvestigation into the case was ordered in March 2016 through a joint investigation team after a JIT report, which was submitted to the Sindh High Court in February 2015, revealed that the factory was set on fire after its owners failed to pay the extortion money.