Three seminary students died on Saturday under mysterious circumstances in the Sarooba area in Chauntra police limits.
Six-year-old Junaid, the son of seminary teacher Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza, was also among the dead. The other victims were identified as 12-year-old Islam and 13-year-old Ibad.
After an initial investigation, police declared the death of the children accidental and postponed further probe till the post-mortem report was received. The police said that action will be taken once the postmortem reported determined the cause of the death of the children.
No evidence of child abuse or torture marks were found on the bodies, the police said. The police said that the bodies of three children have been handed over to the families after the initial post-mortem.
Hafiz Ghulam Murtaza, the teacher at the seminary, said that around 35 children, who stay in the seminary, went to sleep after dinner on Friday night. He said that two children were found dead in their rooms while the third child, who had been rushed to the hospital after his health deteriorated, died during treatment.
Read Four killed, one injured in separate incidents
He said that the hospital staff tried their best to save his life but they could not. The seminary teacher said that the seminary children had earlier mentioned that they had seen a snake on the building premises.
“If poisonous food was the cause of the incident, then the rest of the students would have been in bad health. However, they are safe and healthy,” he said, adding that he lost his own son. He said that all students hail from Sarooba village who stay in the seminary.
Sources said that samples were taken from the stomach of the children during the postmortem. The samples will be sent to Lahore Forensic Laboratory for determining the cause of the death.
According to the sources, other children in the seminary were also being questioned. On the other hand, the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) spokesperson said that PFA Director General (DG) Rafaqat Ali Niswana and Chairman Umar Tanveer Butt have taken notice of the death of the students after they allegedly consumed poisonous food. He said that an inspection team had collected the food being provided to the seminary students.
He said that strict legal action will be taken against those responsible if the children died from consuming poisonous food.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2021.
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