Police on Saturday registered a first information report (FIR) over the devastating Gul Plaza inferno, citing the incident as an “outcome of negligence and carelessness”.
The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, has left the ground-plus-three-storey building in ruins, with some sections collapsed. It has so far claimed 71 lives.
South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza confirmed that the FIR had been registered on behalf of the state, through a police official, under relevant laws.
According to the FIR, Nabi Bux Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Nawaz Ali Zardari said the police received information about the fire in the plaza at around 10:30pm on January 17.
The FIR added that the fire was “rapidly spreading and engulfed the entire plaza” while firefighters and other rescue personnel were engaged in efforts to extinguish the blaze.
It further stated that the fire erupted in shop number 193, a flower and gift shop, located on the ground floor, and quickly spread in the shopping plaza.
“Rescue work is ongoing and there are apprehensions of more deaths,” said the FIR.
The police also blamed the lack of firefighting equipment and “no reasonable arrangements” in the case of an emergency for the tragedy.
The report added that there were “no emergency exits” and that electricity had been switched off, complicating the evacuation of those inside the shopping plaza.
“Due to these reasons, precious human lives were lost and substantive financial losses also occurred.”
The FIR has been registered under Sections 322 (murder without intention), 337-H(i) (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc), and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs50) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Police have not nominated anyone in the case; therefore, the FIR has been registered against unknown persons.
Need to learn lessons: Khaqan Abbasi
Separately, Awaam Pakistan Convenor Shahid Khaqan Abbasi paid a visit to Gul Plaza, where he stressed the need to “learn lessons” from the incident and take corrective measures.
“This has been a complete failure […] There are thousands of such buildings in Karachi. What will the government do about those?” he said while speaking to the media.
The ex-premier remarked that possibly replacing a “few officials” after an investigation was “no compensation” for the loss of lives and property caused by the fire.
During the media talk, a citizen decried that the relatives of the deceased who had come for shopping were “not getting any information” or propoer responses.
