Sindh Police believe packaged chips and juices caused minors’ deaths

Say the youngest victim could not have eaten the biryani, but actual cause would be determined after lab tests

KARACHI: The Sindh Food Authority (SFA) and police have started investigations into the case of the five minor siblings, who died on Friday morning after allegedly consuming 'poisonous' food the previous night.

For now, the investigators believe that the children and their aunt, Beena, who is still under treatment at the hospital, probably suffered a reaction from the packaged chips and juices that they bought at Hub Chowki.

They base this hypothesis on two factors - that the youngest victim, one-and-a-half-year-old Abdul Ali couldn't have eaten the biryani from Naubahar restaurant in Saddar, from where the family got dinner on Thursday night. The other clue, they say, is that the victims' father too ate the biryani, but he didn't get sick.



According to police officials, the victims' father, Faisal Zaman had come to Karachi from Quetta with his wife, Nida Faisal and their five children, one-and-a-half year-old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, six-year-old Alina, seven-year-old Tauheed and nine-year-old Salwa on Thursday night. Faisal's sister, Beena Badruddin, also accompanied them on the trip.

Arrests

According to police officials privy to details of the investigation, the investigators are looking at all angles and will try to acquire and test all the samples of food consumed by the family on their way to Karachi from Quetta.

South Zone SSP Pir Muhammad Shah told The Express Tribune that they have detained eight employees of the Naubahar restaurant, including its manager.

He said that it was difficult to acquire the samples of the snacks the family had bought at Hub Chowki, because the family had even thrown away the leftovers along the route to Karachi. He added, however, that teams would be dispatched to Hub and Khuzdar soon.

Police are also gathering information from the city's leading public hospitals on any patients complaining of food poisoning or related issues. They have appealed citizens to come forward if they ate at the Naubahar Restaurant on Thursday and fell ill thereafter.

Post-mortem

The post-mortem of the five children was performed at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital on Friday afternoon. According to the police, samples taken from the victims' organs would be sent to chemical labs for testing.

A four-member team of doctors, headed by Police Surgeon Dr Aijaz Khokhar carried out the three-hour-long post-mortem. The other members of the team were Additional Police Surgeon Dr Iqrar Abbasi, Dr Arif Memon, and Lady MLO Dr Seema.

Samples extracted from the victims' organs were sent to the chemical lab for analysis. Dr Khokhar told The Express Tribune that nothing could be said for now, as the cause of death would only be determined after the laboratory reports were received.

Meanwhile, a large number of victims' family and friends gathered at the hospital as the post-mortem was being conducted. Bushra Rind, the spokesperson for Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan was also present at the site.



Speaking to the media about the incident, Rind termed it extremely heart-wrenching and urged the Sindh government to thoroughly investigate the case and punish those responsible for the children's deaths.

Rind also demanded the Sindh government to provide a C130 aircraft to transport the bodies to their hometown for burial. Her request was, however, turned down by the District South Deputy Commissioner Syed Salahuddin, who reasoned that the aircraft wasn't available in Karachi and it would take time to requisition one and have it flown out from Rawalpindi.

SFA swings into action

The Sindh Food Authority has collected food samples from Naubahar Restaurant as well as the utensils used by the family at Qasr-e-Naz.

SFA director Abrar Sheikh told the media that the samples were sent for laboratory tests, adding that they had also collected samples of leftover food, stock and raw material from the restaurant. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2019.