KARACHI: Five children died here early Friday morning and the police say the cause of death was food poisoning.
Their aunt is currently being treated for food poisoning.
The family was from Balochistan’s Pishin and it is unclear where they ate the food that caused them to get sick. They arrived in Karachi at around 11pm.
The children have been identified as one-and-a-half-year-old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, six-year-old Aliya, seven-year-old Tauheed and nine-year-old Salwa.
They were staying at a Qasr-e-Naz (government lodge) in Karachi through a government officer, said South DIG Sharjeel Kharal.
The father, identified as Faisal who is a land owner, and mother took his sister to the Aga Khan University Hospital when she began feeling sick at around 3am.
When he came back to their lodgings, he found his children were all dead. His sister is still being treated at the hospital and is on the ventilator.
The police are investigating what they ate and, according to SSP South Pir Muhammad Shah, they are sending teams to both restaurants to get samples of the food.
The hospital has confirmed that the cause of death was food poisoning. However, the final cause of death will be determined once the medico-legal officer files their report. The bodies are being taken to Jinnah hospital for postmortem examinations.
The police believe the poisoned food might have been the food consumed in Khuzdar because food poisoning’s effects take five to six hours to manifest.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the incident and summoned a report from the Sindh Food Authority. The lodge room at which they were staying has been sealed as has the restaurant.
