Death toll due to fire in shopping mall in Pak’s Karachi rises to 14
Karachi (PTI): The death toll from a horrific fire in an old shopping mall in Pakistan’s Karachi has risen to 14 after rescue teams found eight more bodies from the building rubble.
The fire, which broke out on Saturday night at the Gul Plaza, a wholesale and retail market which had shops in the basement, mezzanine and three more floors, was brought under control by Sunday night.
Six bodies were found immediately after the fire broke out. They had died due to suffocation while dozens of injured were sent to hospitals. However, as the fire spread, rescue teams were unable to go in.
“Once the fire was doused, we didn’t wait for the cooling period and forcibly went in to rescue trapped people and we found eight more bodies, some badly charred,” Rescue 1122 Chief Operating Officer (COO) Abid Jalal said.
He told PTI on Monday morning that the fire had almost completely damaged the building with one back and one front portion collapsing because of weak pillars.
“The building structure has been weakened by the fire and we are still continuing to search for any remaining people because we could see more structural collapses,” Jalal said.
The market, which had around 1200 shops on all floors, has been one of Karachi’s landmarks since the early 1980s on the main M A Jinnah Road in the Saddar commercial area.
Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, who came to the site this morning, told the media that 70 people were still trapped inside the building.
“We are extremely concerned and alarmed. Efforts are going on to find them but this is a national tragedy,” Tessori said.
South DIG Syed Asad Raza told the media that the casualties could increase because there was still a lot more space to be covered to find survivors.
He said an electrical short circuit might have caused the fire but said the cause has yet to be confirmed.
Gul Plaza is not the first shopping mall to catch fire in Karachi as in recent years there have been several incidents due to lack of safety and inadequate fire fighting systems and overloaded electrical systems and illegal constructions in Pakistan’s biggest city.
In 2024, a government audit found that in 266 shopping malls and commercial buildings located on major roads, only six had proper fire safety measures with 62 per cent lacking emergency exits and 70 per cent having substandard electrical systems.
In December 2024, in an adjacent building to Gul Plaza, also built in the early 1980s, fire broke out on two floors but was quickly brought under control.
In 2012, at least 259 people were killed when a fire broke out in a garment factory in Baldia town.
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NIA court to complete framing of charges against 2010 hand-chopping case accused on May 15
Kochi (PTI): A special court here will complete proceedings for framing charges against the prime accused in the 2010 hand-chopping case involving professor T J Joseph, in which PFI activists were accused of attacking him at Muvattupuzha.
Ernakulam Special Court for NIA cases judge P K Mohandas, on April 30, heard the arguments of counsel for accused Savad and Shafeer C and decided to proceed with framing charges against the duo.
A group chopped off Thodupuzha Newman College professor Joseph's right hand in July 2010, accusing him of religious blasphemy in a question paper he had prepared.
The case, later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), resulted in the conviction of 19 accused.
The first accused, Savad, who allegedly chopped off Joseph’s palm, was arrested in Berram in Mattannur, Kannur, in January 2024, where he had allegedly been hiding under the pseudonym Shajahan.
The NIA also arrested Shafeer, who allegedly arranged shelter and provided logistical support to Savad at Chakkad and Mattannur in Kannur since 2020.
On April 30, the court heard the counsel for the accused and the NIA prosecutor on framing charges against the duo.
"On going through the documents and evidence in the case and on hearing the counsel for the accused and the prosecutor, I am of the opinion that there are grounds for presuming that the first accused has committed offences punishable under provisions of the IPC, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and that the second accused has committed offences punishable under the IPC and the UAPA, and there are materials for framing charges under these provisions against the accused," the court said.
The court directed that Savad be produced and Shafeer, who is on bail, appear before it on May 15 for recording their pleas as part of the charge-framing process.
After framing the charges, the court will schedule the trial in the case.
