Bad confectionary: Toxic sweetmeat knocks out family

13 people fall unconscious in Vehari; shopowner held

MULTAN: Thirteen members of family were hospitalised in Vehari on Friday after eating poisonous confectionary items and falling unconscious. Three people at the sweets shop were arrested while the outlet has been sealed.

Police said that 13 people had fallen unconscious in the Mailsi sub-district after consuming toxic sweetmeat and were shifted to the Mailsi District Headquarters Hospital. Doctors have washed the stomachs of the patients and sent their blood samples to Lahore and Multan.

The victims were identified as 40-year-old Muneer Ahmad, 37-year-old Rukhsana, three-year-old Muhammad Anas, three-year-old Kinza, eight-year-old Hina, five-year-old Arooj, nine-year-old Alishba, 30-year-old Shazia, 25-year-old Shahida, four-year-old Mazhar, five-year-old Arsalan Hameed, one-year-old Dua and five-year-old Naveed.

DPO Muhammad Saleem told The Express Tribune that Munir Mitro, a resident of Shah Sattar village, had bought sweets from al Niaz Superstore for his family. The shop owner Niaz Ahmad was taken into custody and a case registered against him under the food act.

Health EDO Dr Afzal Bashir said two cases were already registered against Niaz for selling unhygienic sweetmeat.

Niaz told The Express Tribune that he had been running the business for the past 25 years and no such incident has surfaced in the past.  “No one has fallen unconscious by eating sweetmeat from my shop,” he maintained.

Unhygienic ghee

Meanwhile in Multan, at least 21 workers were arrested on the charges of producing unhygienic ghee at a factory in the industrial estate.

Kashif Dogar, in-charge of the District Task Force for Food told The Express Tribune, that he along with Chief Food Inspector Naeem Changezi took police to a factory where the unhygienic ghee was being prepared with offal of sacrificial animals.

“Twenty people were melting the remains of sacrificial animals in drums and packing them into containers,” he said. The workers and the owner of the factory were arrested and the factory was sealed.

The task force in-charge said the offal of sacrificial animals were collected and dumped outside the city. Police have also seized weapons from Sheikh Mohammad Maqbool, the owner of the factory.

Raids are being conducted in all food factories in Multan on the directives of DCO Nadir Chattha. Crackdowns will also be launched against food outlets, restaurants and hotels.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2016.