KARACHI - Two children, who died due to food poisoning, laid to rest amid tears and sobs at local graveyard on Monday.

One-and-a-half-year-old Ahmed and Muhammad, 5, lost their lives on Sunday afternoon allegedly due to food poisoning after dining at Arizona Grill restaurant in the city’s Zamzama area and consuming candies from a shop outside the Chunky Monkey amusement park on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

Their mother was also affected and remained admit at South City Hospital in Clifton where doctors termed her condition stable now. Unfortunately, their father who is said to be associated with the construction business in Lahore was not in a city when the incident took place and the mother and her two ailing children were taken to the hospital by other family members on Sunday afternoon. 

The family and relatives took the bodies of the minors to Masjid al-Aisha on Khayaban-e-Ittehad in Karachi’s Defence area for funeral prayers. A large number of people including family members, relatives, neighbourers and political figures including PTI MNA Aftab Siddiqui also attended the funeral. The ill-fated brothers were later laid to rest amid tears and sobs at a graveyard in Phase VII in DHA.

Though the case is yet to be registered, the police and Food Authority have started joint efforts about to ascertain the actual cause of death and find the responsible persons. The police took the bodies of the minors to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for autopsies where the doctors carried out their post-mortem and a report has been kept reserved while the samples have been sent to the laboratory for the chemical and pathological examination.

“Apparently, both the minors died of food poisoning but nothing could say exactly until the report is release,” a source at the JPMC told. “Samples from the bodies and blood specimens had been taken and chemical analysis report would be released in between five to ten days to determine the actual cause of the death.”

Mother’s ordeal

The ill-fated mother was not even aware that her two young sons had passed away. As she battled for her own life for a day and the following night, she was placated by her family that her sons were fine and under treatment.

The mother, however, refused to be placated. In her heart, she knew her sons’ lives were in mortal danger and on further insistence; the family was compelled to inform her of their fate.

Her husband then brought the children’s bodies to the hospital so she could bide them farewell. It was a surreal scene. No eye was dry at the hospital as the sounds of a painfully distressed mother ailing for her minor children pierced the serenity of the hospital ward.

The mother begged for her sons’ lives; desperately clinging on to their lifeless forms for fear of not ever seeing them again. She swore she wouldn’t be able to live without them. “Please don’t take them away. I can’t live without them,” shouted their mother Aisha. “Please get them back.”

COMMITTEE FORMED

A committee has also been formed under the supervision of district South Operations SSP Pir Muhammad Shah, SSP Investigations SSP Tariq Dharejo and ASP Clifton Suhai Aziz. Police investigators said that they were investigating the case from different angles as the children were taken to hospital after a delay.

Apart from the samples of the children’s blood, urine, the team also visited the residence and also collected the samples from the home including vomit from dustbin, clothes and the milk which the children had consumed on the midnight at home and sent them to different private institutions and hospitals for testing. “Now, we are going to send samples to a laboratory in Punjab,” Clifton ASP Suhai Aziz said.

“The FIR of the case would be registered when the cause of the death is confirmed.” Apart from sealing the restaurant and a shop and collection of the samples, the investigators have also started questioning people. “We have so far been questioned about 25 people including the mother and workers at the restaurant and a candy shop,” ASP Aziz claimed.

The mother in her initial statement to the police revealed that the candies had a strange flavour and her sons started vomiting at 6am four hours after they reached the home and her relatives later took them to the hospital on Sunday afternoon.