Pakistani factory fires claim 125 lives

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fires swept through two factories in Pakistan, one in the city of Karachi and the other in Lahore, killing at least 125 people, police and government officials said on Wednesday, September 12, Reuters said.

The death toll from the late Tuesday fires is likely to raise fresh questions about industrial safety in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation and draw more criticism of the deeply unpopular government.

In the deadliest incident, flames raced through a garment factory in the teeming commercial capital of Karachi, killing at least 100 people.

"People started screaming for their lives," said Mohammad Asif, 20. "Everyone came to the window. I jumped from the third floor."

In Lahore, a fire raged in a shoe factory, killing at least 25 people.

Critics say Pakistan's government is too corrupt and ineffective to focus on the welfare of workers and a dizzying array of other problems, from crippling power cuts, to widespread poverty to a Taliban insurgency.

"The owners were more concerned with safeguarding the garments in the factory than the workers," said garment factory employee Mohammad Pervez, holding up a photograph of his cousin, one of the workers who is still missing.

"If there were no metal grills on the windows a lot of people would have been save. The factory was overflowing with garments and fabrics. Whoever complained was fired."

At a Karachi hospital, about 30 bodies burned beyond recognition were lined up at a morgue.

"There is no space left here. It's full," said ambulance worker Wasif Ali. "They keep coming."