MQM’s Hammad Siddiqui employee of trading company in Dubai: sources

DUBAI: Hammad Siddiqui, the prime accused in the 2012 Baldia factory inferno case, was an employee of a general trading company in Dubai, local sources revealed to Geo News.

Wanted in a number of heinous crimes, Siddiqui holds marketing manager visa from Al Takatuf General Trading (LLC) since 2014. 

He moved to Dubai at the end of 2013 after his membership was suspended for violating party discipline. Siddiqui was previously in-charge of the Karachi Tanzeemi Committee (KTC) of the MQM.

The documents obtained by this scribe confirm that Siddiqui has been living in the Emirates on a permanent visa. His name Hammad Siddiqui Masih ul Haq Siddiqui was mentioned on the visa.

He was arrested with the help of Interpol and Dubai police in coordination with Pakistan authorities in late October.

Sources also claimed that a lady named M Khan was also detained with Siddiqui in Dubai.

It was informed by different reliable sources that the relation between M Khan and Siddiqui was under interrogation by the authorities of both the countries.

Meanwhile, the legal process to get the custody of suspect Siddiqui is gaining momentum in Dubai.

Sources in Pakistan Consulate in Dubai expressed hope that Siddiqui would be transferred to Pakistan very soon but declined to commit a timeframe for handover.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) had last year ordered Pakistani authorities to get the accused arrested through Interpol. The Ministry of Interior, acting on the court orders, had also issued a red warrant for Siddiqui.

In Dec 2016, another key accused in the Baldia factory fire case, Abdul Rahman alias Bhola, was arrested from Bangkok, Thailand, by Interpol.

The key suspect behind Pakistan's deadliest industrial fire had confessed that he deliberately set fire to Ali Enterprise on the instructions of MQM leader Siddiqui.

Bhola had revealed that the MQM leader instructed him to set fire to the factory in the vicinity of Baldia Town Karachi because of non-payment of Rs250 million 'bhatta' (protection money).

He had claimed the intent behind the arson attack was only to intimidate owners of the factory, and he didn’t anticipate that his act would result in the loss of lives.  

More than 260 people had been killed in the fire on September 11, 2012.