A steamer exploded at the Crystal Chemical Factory in Faisalabad early on a Friday, and the blast did not stay inside the walls. Four neighbouring industrial units were flattened, and so were nine houses in Malikpur, which brought roofs down on families with no connection to the plant.
At least 20 people died, according to Dawn, which the Indian news agency ANI cited. Seven of the dead came from a single family, the eldest a 62-year-old man named Shafiq. His wife Maqsooda was 55. With them died their son Irfan and four grandchildren, aged 13, 12, 10 and 4. Elsewhere a house came down on Ashiq Hussain, an electrical engineer, along with his sons Bilal, 20, Omar, 22, and Obaid, 24. Four people from a different family, Fakhra, 40, her baby Ali Hasnain, and the girls Maham, 4, and Jannat, 3, were buried in rubble. Waqas, 25, and Saim, 23, brothers, had been working in a nearby embroidery unit. A factory hand named Fazal was among the dead too. Ages ran from one year to 62.
Boiler or gas leak?
The first word from Rescue 1122 was that a boiler had blown. It later pointed to a gas leak instead, and so did the office of Faisalabad Commissioner Raja Jahangir Anwar, which said no boiler was present at all. Four factories were operating in Malikpur, the statement said, and fire from gas leaking in one of them engulfed the others. The commissioner’s office said 17 bodies had been pulled from the rubble. Over 20 ambulances and fire engines joined the rescue, and the office said the rescue work was finished and clearing had begun.
Seven people were hurt. After first aid, three went home, and three others were kept in Allied Hospital’s burn unit.
Arrests, warnings and anger
Police arrested the factory’s owner, Qaiser Chughtai, and opened a case that invokes the Anti Terrorism Act, the penal code and a law on explosives. He and his administrative staff reportedly hid for several hours first. The first information report names the owner, a manager called Bilal Ali Imran and six more people, and police also detained a cook and two workers. According to the report, neighbours had warned management again and again about flammable chemicals stored on site. Management ignored them.
Maryam Nawaz Sharif, Punjab’s chief minister, asked for a detailed report, and the commissioner set up a committee of five to work out who is to blame. Labour groups were blunter. Nasir Mansoor of the National Trade Union Federation, Baba Latif Ansari of the Labour Qaumi Movement and Farooq Tariq of the Haqooq i Khalq Party each blamed official negligence, arguing that failure to enforce safety rules lets owners run factories that endanger workers and neighbours.
Sources
- Pakistan: Faisalabad glue factory explosion leaves 20 dead (Tribune India / ANI, citing Dawn)
- Death toll hits 20 after massive blast rips through Faisalabad factory (Daily Times)
