KARACHI: A day after a Balochistan’s businessman lost his five children apparently after consuming poisonous food in Karachi; Faisal Zaman Kakar also lost his sister undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Karachi on Saturday.
The Police investigators, however, failed to make headway in the case but claimed recording the statements of the 28 people and sending the samples to the laboratory. Bina Badaruddin was the sixth victim to the tragedy that occurred on the night between Thursday and Friday. Bina was the sister of Faisal Zaman Kakar who runs a construction business in Balochistan. Kakar’s five children including 18th-month-old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, Aliya, 6, Tauheed, 7, and Salwa, 9 died on Friday while his sister, Bina Badaruddin, remained admitted at intensive care unit of a private hospital on the National Stadium Road. His wife was also among the victims but she was discharged from the hospital on Friday.
Kakar along with his family had reached Karachi on Thursday night for medical treatment of his wife. They had lunch at a friend's house in Khuzdar, chips and juices at Hub Chowki and later picked biryani from Naubahar which they ate later at the Qasr-e-Naz guest rooms where they were staying. The victims fell sick on early Friday and were taken to a private hospital where the doctors declared the five siblings dead on arrival while admitting their aunt, who lost her life during treatment. Her body was also taken to her hometown Pishin for the funeral. Earlier in the day, funeral prayers of the deceased siblings were offered at their hometown Pishin on Saturday which was attended by large number of people.
The police investigators have claimed that they have recorded the statements of 28 people including the employees of Naubahar and Café Student and added the owners of both the restaurants are not cooperating with the police. The Civil Lines SHO, Sajjad Ahmed, said the samples of the food collected from the Naubahar, Qasr-e-Naz guest house and car were sent to the International Center for Chemical and Biological Science laboratory at the Karachi University. Similarly, more samples would be sent to laboratories in Lahore on Monday.
As part of initial inquiries, the police investigators suspect that "fumigation at the rooms of the guesthouse could be the cause of the tragedy," adding the police have not been unable to find the wrappers of juices and chips which the children consumed from Hub Chowki while traveling to Karachi. The Police investigators also visited the Hub Chowki to record the statements of the shopkeepers and vendors but did not find anything concrete. This is a second major tragedy to have occurred in Karachi after November 11, 2018 when two minors had died, while their mother fell sick after consuming infected food from Arizona Grill in DHA.