Bangladesh court orders arrests over factory fire incident

Bangladesh court orders arrests over factory fire incident

A court in Bangladesh has ordered the arrest of the owners of a garnet factory, where the a deadly fire claimed the lives of 111 workers in 2012.

“Dhaka’s senior judicial magistrate Wasim Sheikh issued the warrants of arrest against the two fugitive owners, Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akter, and four other company officials for the Tazreen factory fire,” Prosecutor Anwarul Kabir said on Tuesday.

Kabir went on to explain that that court accepted charges leveled by police on December 22 against 13 people involved in the incident after officers concluded a 13-month-long probe into the disaster, which took place on November 24, 2012.

“The owners and 11 others have been charged with arson, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and death by negligence,” Kabir said.

The country’s huge garment trade has been under the spotlight over a series of deadly factory incidents.

In April 2013, the Bangladeshi industry suffered a far worse tragedy when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed in Dhaka’s outskirts, killing more than 1,100 people in the world’s worst industrial disaster.

An investigation into the incident revealed that the building was poorly constructed and the hired engineers and factory owners had allegedly instructed the workers to continue working despite having knowledge of cracks in the building.

Garment factory workers have repeatedly held rallies to protest against low payments and appalling working conditions in industrial districts; Bangladeshi police have heavily clamped down on them.