{"id":6147,"date":"2020-10-07T08:40:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T08:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=6147"},"modified":"2020-10-07T08:40:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T08:40:13","slug":"baldia-factory-case-convicts-approach-shc-to-challenge-atc-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2020\/10\/07\/baldia-factory-case-convicts-approach-shc-to-challenge-atc-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Baldia factory case: Convicts approach SHC to challenge ATC verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karachi: Convicts of Baldia factory fire case have moved Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge the verdict of Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC).<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

According to details, Zubair and Abdul Rehman along with other convicts have approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge their conviction in the high-profile Baldia factory fire case.<\/p>\n

In the appeal, they have stated that ATC ignored important evidence while pronouncing its verdict. They have further requested the court to overturn ATC\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n

Earlier, on September 22, an anti-terrorism court sentenced two convicts to death in the verdict of the 2012 Baldia Town Factory tragedy.<\/p>\n

The court awarded death sentence to Abdul Rahman, alias ‘Bhola’, and Zubair, alias ‘Charya’ in Baldia town factory tragedy; however, it acquitted MQM Pakistan leader Rauf Siddiqui due to lack of the evidences against him.<\/p>\n

Moreover, four accused persons were pronounced life imprisonment by the court.<\/p>\n

What was the incident?<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

On September 11, 2012, a fire ravaged through the Ali Enterprises garments factory, owned by Bhaila brothers in Baldia Town.<\/p>\n

The incident is regarded as one the deadliest industrial disasters, an eye-opener on the dangerous working conditions in factories and a reminder of the lawlessness in the country.<\/p>\n

Over 259 workers, including men, women and teenagers, were burnt alive while working in the factory.<\/p>\n

Initially, owner of the factory Abdul Aziz Bhaila, and his two sons, Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, a general manager and three gatekeepers were charge-sheeted for their alleged negligence.<\/p>\n

However, the case took a turn in February 2015 when Rangers submitted a joint investigation team (JIT) report in the Sindh High Court.<\/p>\n

According to the JIT report, the factory fire was a planned sabotage activity and not an accidental fire.<\/p>\n

It added that the act was carried out over refusal to pay extortion of Rs200 million and partnership in the factory by factory owners to MQM office-bearers Rehman Bhola and Hammad Siddiqui.<\/p>\n

In December 2019, Bhola was brought back after his arrest in Bangkok through Interpol, and he recorded his confessional statement before a judicial magistrate and stated that he, with Zubair alias Charya and others, set the factory ablaze deliberately on the instructions of Hammad Siddiqui.<\/p>\n

He had revealed that the MQM leader had instructed him to set the factory on fire in the vicinity of Baldia Town Karachi because of non-payment of Rs250 million as extortion money.<\/p>\n

He had claimed the intent behind the arson attack was only to intimidate owners of the factory, and he didn\u2019t anticipate that his act would result in the loss of lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karachi: Convicts of Baldia factory fire case have moved Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge the verdict of Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC). According to details, Zubair and Abdul Rehman along with other convicts have approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge their conviction in the high-profile Baldia factory fire case. In the appeal, they have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pakistan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6149,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6147\/revisions\/6149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}