Update:
Death toll in the Karachi food poisoning tragedy has increased to six as another member of the same family passed away in the hospital, police confirmed. Bina, the aunt of the five siblings who died in the suspected food poisoning case also died at the Aga Khan Hospital in Karachi.
Five siblings including three brothers had died on Friday morning in one of the worst food poisoning cases in the country.
Police have sealed a biryani restaurant in Karachi and detained dozens of people after five siblings died of eating toxic food on Friday.
Their mother and paternal aunt also fell critically ill and undergoing treatment at a private hospital.
According to police officials, five children with ages ranging from one-and-half years to nine years, died of food poisoning after dining at an eatery in Saddar.
The deceased included one-and-half year old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, six-year old Aliya, seven-year-old Tauheed and nine-year-old Salvi.
This is the second incident of fatal food poisoning case in Karachi, capital of the Pakistani province of Sindh, in less than four months.
In November last year, two siblings, 18-month-old Ahmed and Muhammad, 5, died from a suspected case of food poisoning. The children had dined out with their mother at a local eatery.
According to police officials, the family along with five children reached Karachi from Quetta at 11:30pm on Thursday night and were staying at a guest house in Saddar.
"The family had called in for food from a nearby restaurant at their guest house."
According to Geo TV report, the family had also eaten food at a restaurant in Khuzdar before reaching Karachi.
Superintendent Police Gulshan Tahir Noorani said the cause of the children’s death appears to be food poisoning, according to initial investigation into the incident.
Further investigation is under way, he added. He said that the family had consumed food from Naubahar restaurant in the Saddar area.
The restaurant in Saddar has been temporarily sealed by the Sindh Food Authority and samples of food taken for chemical examination. The Sindh Food Authority also submitted an initial report to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on the incident.
Police said they have taken 18 employees of the eatery in question into custody.
Deputy Inspector General South Sharjeel Kharal said police would try to track down samples of all the food that the family had consumed on their journey from Quetta to Karachi.
According to SSP South Pir Mohammad Shah, children’s mother started vomiting and fell down inside the bathroom at around 3:30am at Qasr-e-Naz — a government lodge where they were staying.
Her husband, Faisal Kakar, assumed that she has suffered a heart attack and immediately took her to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) where she was administered first aid.
When the couple returned at around 9am, they were shocked to find that two of their children were already dead and three others were in an unconscious state. Faisal’s sister was also barely able to speak, Dawn news reported.
Faisal then took his five children and sister to AKUH again at around 10am where all children were pronounced dead.
Quoting the doctors, the SSP said that the children were already dead around half an hour before their arrival at the AKUH.
He said that the children’s mother was saved ostensibly due to timely treatment.
The father said that his family had also had lunch at a friend's home in Balochistan's Khuzdar area earlier in the day, before consuming chips and juice in Hub. The family hails from Quetta and Kakar is a landlord in Balochistan, according to the SSP.
Since there was no more room in the air ambulance, the couple left for Quetta on a flight, while the bodies of their children were sent later on through the air ambulance.
Police said they would attempt to track down samples of all the food that the family had consumed on their journey from Quetta to Karachi.
Police have detained at least 32 people from three different places and collected 33 samples along with a team from SFA and Karachi University’s Hussain Ebrahim Jamal (HEJ) Research Institute of Chemistry.
In addition, a famous biryani chain which supplied biryani to Naubahar has also been sealed, said DIG South Sharjeel Kharal.
The senior officer told Dawn that 32 people in total have been detained from Naubahar, the biryani chain, and Qasr-e-Naz where the family members had stayed.
Furthermore, Naubahar restaurant and the bedroom, store room and kitchen of Qasr-e-Naz have also been sealed for investigation.
DIG Kharal said samples from the bodies of the deceased siblings will be sent to a laboratory in Lahore on Saturday to ascertain the exact cause of death.
