Baldia factory fire accused Hammad Siddiqui can be extradited by next week: sources
Legal formalities have been completed and documentation to bring the accused to Pakistan have been handed over to diplomatic officials, says sources
November 06, 2017
DUBAI: Hammad Siddiqui, the prime accused in the 2012 Baldia factory inferno case, can be extradited to Pakistan as early as next week, said sources.
Diplomatic sources said that legal formalities have been completed and documentation to bring the accused to Pakistan have been handed over to diplomatic officials.
The Pakistani mission in the United Arab Emirates has notified FIA officials, who will soon travel to the Emirates for the purpose, added sources.
Sources further revealed that at the time of his arrest in the UAE, two close associates and facilitators of Siddiqui were present but managed to escape law enforcers.
Siddiqui has reportedly has made several revelations to police, and has named Naveed and Danish during the investigation. Emirati sources have said the police is looking for the escaped duo.
The sources further revealed that strict vigilance has been ordered on all exit points in the Emirates and diplomatic sources added that the duo is involved in heinous crimes.
Local sources earlier revealed that Siddiqui was an employee of a general trading company in Dubai.
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.
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.
