KARACHI,JAN 23 /DNA/ : The death toll of Karachi’s Gul Plaza blaze crossed 70 on Friday as rescuers found more remains from the rubble of the gutted shopping centre.
Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed issued an updated list of 71 deceased. Of the 16 identified so far, nine were identified through DNA tests, which have been performed for 49 samples.
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.
As more bodies were recovered from different parts of the building, officials cautioned that the final toll can only be determined once the identification of the remains is completed.
Meanwhile, officials expressed the hope to complete their search efforts today.
South Deputy Commissioner (DC) Javed Nabi Khoso told reporters that the search operation was in the “final stages”. “The search in the wreckage will be completed today,” he said.
Stating that a total of 77 missing persons had been reported, he said the recovery efforts were being made under the supervision of the Sindh Building and Control Authority’s (SBCA) team.
The director general (DG) of Sindh Rescue 1122, Brigadier (retd) Wajid Sibghatullah Mahar, said rescue personnel were to continue their recovery efforts in “10 to 15 per cent” of the building’s area that they had been unable to access before.
“There are some concerns that we have not been able to reach the ground floor, where the fire erupted. We hope to find bodies from there,” the Rescue 1122 DG told the media.
Defending Rescue 1122’s efforts, Mahar asserted that the teams had modern equipment, the inferno had turned into a third-degree fireby the time rescue personnel reached the site.
The official further said that 15 to 20 people were rescued and evacuated when the blaze erupted.
“Either the fire safety system was not present in the building, or it was not activated,” Mahar said. He revealed that the latest technology had been used over the past three days to aid the search process, in order to locate any individual who survived the blaze.
The Rescue 1122 DG added that based on the information so far, the fire erupted in a flower shop, from where it spread through the duct. However, he added, the police were still investigating why the fire spread quickly.
CM Murad briefs Sindh Assembly
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also briefed the provincial assembly on the incident during its proceedings today, with Mayor Murtaza Wahab in attendance.
He informed the assembly that the fire erupted at a ground-floor shop at 10:14pm on January 17, with the first call received by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) from a shop owner’s son.
The first fire brigade was dispatched at 10:27pm from a fire station near the Civil Hospital Karachi, Murad said, adding that Rescue 1122 received the first call at 10:36pm. “We have also verified these records through CCTV.”
The Sindh CM further said that he has issued directives to a minister to register a first information report (FIR) of the incident based on the information so far.
He also noted that people had gathered at the site in large numbers despite being told not to.
During his address, CM Murad also took a jibe at those “politicising” the incident and bringing up the topic of the 18th Amendment — an apparent reference to remarks made by leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
At this point, Jamaat-i-Islami MPA Muhammad Farooq interrupted the chief minister’s speech, at which Sindh Assembly Speaker Syed Awais Qadir Shah repeatedly asked the former to sit down or leave the hall.
