KARACHI:
When Mohammad Hassan and his wife decided to prepare ‘niyaz’ at home on 12th Rabiul Awwal, they didn’t know that it would kill their neighbour and two other guests.
Although the authorities were certain that Lubna, 22, Farooq, 20, and 18-year-old Khalid ate something toxic, they were not sure how the biryani prepared by Ali’s wife Shabnum turned lethal.
On Sunday, Hassan invited relatives and neighbours over to their 80-square yard house in Mohammadi Colony. Shabnum prepared five kilogrammes of chicken biryani with store-bought masala which landed a dozen guests and the couple to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Most of them were discharged after an initial check-up. “Bhabhi made the biryani because it was Rabiul Awwal. We don’t know how it became toxic,” said Faqir Mohammad, a relative. “Within 15 minutes we started feeling sick and passed out.”
Lubna was Faqir Mohammad’s cousin. Her one-month-old baby boy, husband Haider Ali and 18-year-old brother-in-law Sagar were also there. According to Sagar, he survived because he did not eat much. “I only had less than half a plate otherwise I would have been dead too,” he said. “Although I am grateful to be alive, I am sad about losing my sister-in-law.” Khalid and Farooq were brothers who worked for Faqir Mohammad.
A sample of the poisoned biryani was sent to the forensics laboratory. “Food can become poisonous if a lizard or insect falls into the pot while it cooks,” said Dr Saleem. “We can only speculate right now. Once the report comes we will know what really happened.” He added that Lubna and Farooq were dead before they got to hospital while Khalid died during treatment.
The police have registered a case against unidentified suspects. They had detained a shopkeeper identified as Aslam.
They claim that the couple bought the rice and masala from him. They are still looking for the butcher who sold them the meat.
Aslam said that he sold good quality rice. He added that Hassan and his wife weren’t his only customers and no one else had complained. According to the Ayub Goth police station SI Rana Haseeb, they had detained Aslam for questioning and were still waiting for the test results. He said that the results would take a week and they still had to record the statement of the victims and family in case the incident had links to a personal enmity.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has asked Sindh IG Mushtaq Shah to submit an inquiry report.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2012.
COMMENTS (3)
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Poisoned food by warm weather do not kill people so quick, with food poisoning the symtems are chronic stomach pain, vomitting in short colera sysmtems appears. According to Ummumat news a women who has not visited their house for long time and suddenly appear on 12 Rabiul awwal, she stay for short period and did eat biryani, may be responsible for poisoning the food. Allah knows best.
Very Sad for the deceased and their family. I can't believe the paper is so quick to print all the names before even the investigation results are in, that don't happen anywhere in the world. If the named people are innocent how are you going to reverse that? Besides there could be lot of factors including rotten rice or meat, which happen if food is left for too long at room temperature. Insect in food is common and rarely kill anyone. Only two type of lizards are poisonous and they live far away from India Pakistan, don't kill the lizards they only eat flies & bugs.
The Quick-kill culprit could be(if not intentional corruption) any strong home-cleaning-solution or the poisonous surface or material of cooking utensils. Some surfaces develope poison on its own if used for certain domestic chemical.