Police in Bahrain on Monday arrested the owner of a building where a blaze killed 13 Bangladeshi workers and injured several others on Friday.
The owner’s elder brother, said to be responsible for the building and out of the country, will be summoned for police questioning, reported UAE-based Gulf News on Tuesday.
Several MPs and columnists of Bahrain have called for stringent action against those responsible for the tragedy — through negligence or greed.
Meanwhile, the cabinet in Bahrain said laws would be toughened to ensure better compliance with rules and safety standards and avoid similar tragedies.
Earlier, Bahrain lawmaker Abdul Halim Murad criticised the negligence and carelessness of government agencies and the owner of the downtown building for the deaths of the workers.
According to officials in the Bahraini capital Manama, 135 labourers, mostly from Bangladesh, lived in 27 rooms of the three-storey building where no maintenance work had been carried out for 35 years, Gulf News added.
Officials, diplomats and non-government organisations have been working to secure shelter, clothes and food for the dozens of survivors left homeless by the fire.
The foreign ministry of Bangladesh has confirmed that all the 13 people, who were burned to death at the labour camp in Manama, are Bangladeshis.
Source: The Daily Star
