Baldia factory: Dr Sattar claims ignorance from extortion demand

Dr Farooq Sattar, the former convener of the MQM’s Rabita Committee, has said that he did not know that party leaders asked the owners of Ali Enterprises garments factory for protection money. At least 259 factory workers were burned alive and 50 others injured after a fire erupted at the factory in Baldia Town on September 11, 2012. Nine people affiliated with the MQM, including Hammad Siddiqui, Rehman Bhola and Zubair alias Chariya, have been charged with setting the garment factory on fire after the factory owners refused to pay them Rs200 million as ‘protection’ money. Arshad Bhaila and Shahid Bhaila, the factory owners, were initially booked in the case and arrested for premeditated murder and neglecting the safety of their workers. The brothers were granted bail in February 2013 and eventually fled to Dubai, claiming that they have been receiving threats. “I was involved in the case when the second JIT ordered compensation for the grieving families,” said Sattar while speaking to a private television channel on Monday. It was decided that Rs 500,000 each will be given the families of the victims. “I even met the Bhaila brothers in the US over this but they did not tell me about the extortion demand.” He remarked that he is not challenging the JIT report. People involved in this “inhumane brutality” should be held responsible, he said, adding that it’s scary that people were burned alive because the factory owners didn’t pay ‘protection money’. This case should be pursued and justice dispensed. We have to look at the timing the reports are being released, he cautioned. “Why has the Sindh government clubbed the JIT reports of Uzair Baloch, the Baldia fire and Nisar Morai? Why is it being done now?” The Baldia fire was first called an accident. Then an NGO filed a case over compensation and one of the witnesses claimed the MQM was involved. Then, another JIT was formed and it revealed that a few party members set fire to the factory, he added. PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, on the other hand, criticised Sattar for his remarks. “How can you not know that MQM members used to extort money from people? Everyone seems to know it except you.”