A Bangladesh court today ordered the arrest of six absconding owners of a gutted garment factory after they were charged with the death of 112 workers in the country's worst industrial tragedy last year.
The court in Dhaka issued the warrants for the owners - Delwar Hossain and his wife Mahmuda Akhter - and four others over the deadliest fire that destroyed the Tazreen factory in Ashulia, which supplied apparels for Western retailers including Walmart.
Over 200 others were injured in the blaze on November 24, 2012.
Senior judicial magistrate Wasim Sheikh gave the order after declaring all six "fugitives" for failing to appear in court.
He accepted the charges against 13 people, including the owners, factory managers and security guards.
After a year-long probe, police earlier this month filed charges against the 13 people over the disaster, a prosecutor said. All 13 could face life in prison if convicted.
They have been charged with manslaughter and death caused by negligence.
The chargesheet said the accused did not allow workers to leave the factory and dismissed a fire alarm as a drill. The probe did not rule out the allegation that the fire may have been an act of sabotage.
The factory, on the outskirts of Dhaka, supplied clothes to several international brands, including US giant Walmart, Dutch retailer C&A and ENYCE, a label owned by US rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs.
The fire was the country's deadliest ever industrial accident till the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed just months later, killing 1,135 people.
Bangladesh's garment industry is worth over USD 20 billion, second only to China, but is often in the international spotlight because of poor safety conditions.
Factory owners are rarely charged over such accidents in the sector, which employs over 3.6 million workers, mostly women, and accounts for 77 per cent of the country's exports. Workers are often paid as little as USD 38 a month.
Bangladesh has pledged to clean up the industry after the Rana Plaza disaster in April and more than 100 top Western retailers have agreed on new safety measures to allow greater scrutiny of their operations.
