KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court granted physical remand of Abdur Rehman alias Bhola, the main accused of Baldia Town factory fire.
The court granted five days’ physical remand of the accused to police, who was produced before the court under stringent security today.
The judge also ordered the police to produce accused Bhola before the court on December 19 court hearing.
The accused reportedly has said that the factory was set on fire by Asghar Baig.
A two-member team of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) brought back Bhola, an MQM activist, to Karachi from Bangkok on Tuesday.
Interpol officials had arrested Bhola on December 03, with the help of the commandos of Thai police from a hotel of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
Bhola can reportedly reveal all the crucial information and expose actors behind the arson attack on the factory Ali Enterprises, in Karachi’s Baldia Town that claimed over 250 lives of the factory workers in September 2012.
A major development took place in the case after three years in 2015 as the investigation report stated that the factory was set ablaze on the directives of a political party’s leaders.
“The fire that engulfed had the factory was an outcome of a pre-planned scheme and that it was no accident,” revealed the Joint Investigation Team report. “The factory was set ablaze over non-payment of bhatta – extortion money.”
Sources said the JIT report stated that MQM sector in-charge Rehman alias Bhola and Karachi Tanzeemi Committee (KTC) in-charge Hammad Siddiqui had demanded Rs 200 million extortion money from owners of the factory.