The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
September 14, 2012

Survivors: Factory Bosses Trapped Workers in Deadly Pakistan Blaze 
-------------------------------------------------------------------


 
Pakistani authorities have filed murder charges against factory owners
and government officials after a Karachi factory blaze killed nearly 300
people Tuesday in the country’s worst industrial disaster. As
relatives mourned the dead Thursday, survivors said factory managers had
intentionally locked the building’s main 30-foot sliding door,
trapping workers, in order to save a stock of stonewashed jeans due for
export to Europe. The move reportedly left hundreds of workers trapped
in the blaze with just one available exit. Relatives of the victims
gathered at the factory Thursday to search for the bodies of their loved
ones.

Liaqat Ali: "Still, there are bodies lying inside. They are not pulling
those bodies out, they are saying the building will collapse, how the
building will collapse, please someone go and pull them out."

Relative of Victim: "We just want our man back. I want the father of the
children back. They should arrest of the owner of the factory. He should
get exemplary punishment."

 

.