12:57 PM
Early Wednesday morning in Karachi, Pakistan a textile factory caught fire leaving nearly 300 workers trapped behind locked doors. Reports mark this as one as one of Pakistan's worst industrial accidents and to make things even more suspicious another fire broke out in the eastern city of Lahore, at a shoe factory killing at least 25 more workers.
The textile factory in Baldia Town—a northwestern industrial suburb—was said to be a cramped factory filled with hundreds of people who worked for very poor pay making undergarments and plastic tools. To make matters worse, this building which already had limited escape options was locked at every exit except one, all the windows were barred as well. This was said to be done to make sure the workers stayed their complete shift and did not attempt to cut out early. But because if this many of the desperate“prisoners” jumped from the top floors of this four-story building in attempts to escape the blaze only causing serious injuries and in some cases worse. The others that could not make it that far were trapped by “an inferno that advanced mercilessly through a building that officials later described as a death trap”.
Rescue workers on the scene reported that most of the victims died because of the smoke inhalation and those who survived came out with third-degree burns. “As firefighters advanced into the wreckage during the day, battling back the flames, they found dozens of bodies clumped together on the lower floors”.
As the day wound down the Karachi commissioner, Roshan Ali Sheikh said that 289 people had died in the fire. This along with the other factory incident in Lahore killing 25 people, most of who were under the age of 25, begin to raise questions about the working regulations of Pakistan's manufacturing sector, centered in Karachi, and specifically of the textiles industry which is an extremely vital source of foreign currency for Pakistan. But it was said that weak regulations are common in the industries because business owners care more about their profits than their worker's safety.
Wali Muhammad, a former electrical inspector said that most accidental fires are caused by short circuits in equipment, which they were believing to be the case here. But since 2003, inspectors had been forbidden by law from going to the factories located in Karachi and Punjab, which no clear reasons why.
The huge question relating to human rights is why were these people being locked inside the factory to begin with and how could an issue so severe go unseen.
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