LAHORE - Two persons died in Monday after drinking toxic cough syrup, police said.  A 35-year-old rickshaw driver died soon after drinking toxic cough syrup in Lorry Adda.
The man, identified as Javed Butt, a resident of Sialkot, was lying dead alongside a footpath as the police reached the spot. Investigators claimed they recovered an empty bottle of the cough syrup beside the body. A day earlier, the man arrived in Lahore to see off his sister who left for Karachi from the Lahore railways station.
In another incident, a 55-year-old drug addict, yet to be identified, was found dead from a footpath in Mozang. Police said that the man died after drinking toxic syrup. The body was moved to morgue for autopsy.  Monday’s deaths set alarm bells ringing in the provincial capital, where a number of people lost their lives after drinking toxic syrup.  In November 2012, at least 16 people had died and six other had been hospitalized in Lahore after drinking toxic cough syrup. The deaths had occurred in Shahdara Town, a low-income neighbourhood of Lahore with the victims mostly drug addicts who had taken the syrup to get high.  The Punjab government had imposed a ban on cough syrup Tyno, asking the health authorities to launch clampdown against the manufacturers and retailers involved in the trade of deadly syrup.
The authorities had seized the entire stock of Tyno syrup that was available in the market while the government also sealed the factory.
Again, there are reports that either the same Tyno syrup or its alternate is being sold in the local market as drug addicts are frequently taking the medicine to get high.
According to health experts, cough syrup has long been a controversial elixir– usually because of its hallucinogenic properties and frequent abuse, particularly among teens. Health officials say tainted medicine is believed to be responsible for the deaths. The Punjab Health department is yet to launch a probe into Monday’s deaths.