Today marks the 13th anniversary of the manufacturing catastrophe in Baldia Town.

The devastating Baldia Town factory tragedy, which claimed the lives of 260 innocent people and left hundreds more injured or permanently incapacitated, occurred thirteen years ago.

Only memories remain of those who died in the terrible fire. Survivors continue to bear the emotional wounds, and the bereaved families’ suffering is still present today, unrepaired.

Thirteen years ago on this date, September 11, 2012, an unimaginable act of savagery occurred that rocked humanity’s conscience. The industrious workers of a clothing factory in Baldia, Karachi, were unaware that they would not be going home that night. It would be their charred, unidentifiable bodies instead. Even family members might find it difficult to recognize them due to the terrible stench of burnt flesh. People—turned into heaps of ashes.

260 people who had come to the plant with hopes of a better future were burned alive by a ruthless extortion syndicate that showed no semblance of humanity. The terrible conclusion of the investigation was that the fire was not an accident. After the plant owners refused to pay extortion money, it was purposefully set. Special chemicals were utilized, and they were so powerful that the factory was swiftly destroyed by the flames, reducing it to a mound of ashes, trapping the living inside.

Prominent figures associated with a political party started to emerge as the investigation deepened. A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was established and arrests were made. However, neither the father, who was deprived of the support he relied on in his later years, nor the mother, who grieved over the death of her cherished child, ever had the opportunity to hold the murderers accountable.

Numerous relatives of the fire victims assemble outside the plant each year to commemorate the event’s anniversary. Will the oppressed ever receive justice from our system?