Bangladesh Orders Arrest Of Factory Owners For Deadly Fire

DHAKA – A Bangladesh courton Tuesday ordered the arrestof the owners and four othersover the country’s worst-evergarment factory fire that killed111 workers, after police laidcharges.The court in Dhaka issued thewarrants for Delwar Hossainand his wife Mahmuda Akterover the blaze in 2012 at theTazreen factory, where workersstitched clothes for Westernretailers.”Dhaka’s senior judicial magistrateWasim Sheikh issued thewarrants of arrest against thetwo fugitive owners, DelwarHossain and his wife MahmudaAkter, and four other companyofficials for the Tazreen factoryfire,” prosecutor Anwarul Kabirsaid.The fire on November 24, 2012,shone an international spotlighton appalling safety conditions inan industry worth more than$20 billion a year.The factory, in the Ashuliaindustrial district, suppliedclothes to a variety of internationalbrands including US giantWalmart, Dutch retailer C&Aand ENYCE, a label owned byUS rapper Sean ” Diddy”Combs.Kabir said the court acceptedcharges by police against all 13implicated in the fire after officersearlier this month completeda 13-month investigation intothe tragedy.”The owners and 11 others havebeen charged with arson, culpablehomicide not amounting tomurder and death by negligence,”Kabir said, adding thatall the accused face a maximumlife term in prison.The six whose arrest wasordered were not in court or incustody. Police last week said itwas possibly the first time a garmentplant owner has beencharged over a fire at one of thenation’s 4,500 factories, wheredeadly accidents are common.Factory owners are rarelycharged over such tragedies inthe sector, which is a mainstayof the impoverished country’seconomy, accounting to up to80 percent of Bangladesh’sexports.The country suffered an evengreater tragedy just months laterin April when the Rana Plazagarment factory complex collapsedin Dhaka’s outskirts,killing 1,135 people in theworld’s worst industrial disaster.