Over 260 workers were burnt alive when Ali Enterprises, a multi-storey garment factory in Baldia Town neighbourhood of Karachi, was set on fire on September 11, 2012. A subsequent investigation that ran for eight years found out Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers set the factory on fire because the owner had refused to give in to extortion demands. One of the owners of the factory had testified the party had asked him to pay Rs250 million or give a 50 percent share in his business. In September last, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced two MQM workers — Zubair aka Charya and Abdul Rehman aka Bhola — to death. “It seems as if the state is involved in safeguarding the big fish,” the judge said.

Source: Pakistan Today August 09, 2021 08:37 UTC