KARACHI: At least 11 people were killed and several others sustained burn injuries as a fire engulfed a shopping mall in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, known for its fragile firefighting system and poor safety controls, officials and rescue members said on Saturday.
The fire erupted in the RJ Shopping Mall building at around 6 in the morning and was finally extinguished after hours of efforts involving eight fire tenders, two snorkels and a water bowser, according to a Fire Department spokesperson.
The cooling process had commenced and a search was ongoing for any survivors trapped inside the building on the city’s Rashid Minhas Road.
“Eleven people have died and six others are in critical condition due to smoke and fire in RJ Shopping Mall,” Shahid Hussain, a spokesperson for the Chhipa Welfare Organization that runs a rescue service in the city, told Arab News.
Shabbir Ali Babar, a spokesperson for the Sindh provincial health department, confirmed the number of casualties and said the bodies were shifted to Jinnah and Civil hospitals in the city.
Sindh Caretaker Chief Minister Maqbool Baqar has directed the local administration to rescue people and provide immediate treatment to the injured.
“Protection of people’s lives is the responsibility of the government,” a statement from his office said.
Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and the main commercial hub, is home to hundreds of thousands of industrial units and some of the tallest buildings in the South Asian country.
But despite its magnitude, the city has only 22 fire stations, a little over a dozen functional fire tenders, few snorkels, and slightly more than a thousand firefighters — woefully inadequate for a megapolis that witnesses hundreds of fire incidents annually.
In April, four firefighters died and nearly a dozen others were injured after a fire broke out in a garment factory, while 10 people were killed in a massive fire at a chemical factory in the city in August 2021.
In the deadliest such incident, 260 people were killed in 2012 after being trapped inside a garment factory when a fire broke out.
At least 11 people killed in shopping mall fire in Pakistan’s Karachi
https://arab.news/m89us
At least 11 people killed in shopping mall fire in Pakistan’s Karachi
- Six injured persons are said to be in critical condition after firefighters douse the blaze, begin cooling process
- The southern Pakistani city, known for poor fire safety protocols, has witnessed such incidents in past as well
Germany to take in more than 500 stranded Afghans from Pakistan
- German interior minister says Berlin seeks to complete process for Afghan refugees by December
- Afghans part of refugee scheme were stuck in Pakistan after Chancellor Merz froze program earlier this year
BERLIN: The German government said Thursday it would take in 535 Afghans who had been promised refuge in Germany but have been stuck in limbo in Pakistan.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the RND media network Berlin wanted to complete the processing of the cases “in December, as far as possible” to allow them to enter Germany.
The Afghans were accepted under a refugee scheme set up by the previous German government, but have been stuck in Pakistan since conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in May and froze the program.
Those on the scheme either worked with German armed forces in Afghanistan during the war against the Taliban, or were judged to be at particular risk from the Taliban after its return to power in 2021 — for example, rights activists and journalists, as well as their families.
Pakistan had set a deadline for the end of the year for the Afghans’ cases to be settled, after which they would be deported back to their homeland.
Dobrindt said that “we are in touch with the Pakistani authorities about this,” adding: “It could be that there are a few cases which we will have to work on in the new year.”
Last week, the interior ministry said it had informed 650 people on the program they would not be admitted, as the new government deemed it was no longer in Germany’s “interest.”
The government has offered those still in Pakistan money to give up their claim of settling in Germany, but as of mid-November, only 62 people had taken up the offer.
Earlier this month, more than 250 organizations in Germany, including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Human Rights Watch, said there were around 1,800 Afghans from the program in limbo in Pakistan, and urged the government to let them in.
