Karachi - Five children of a family died of suspected food poisoning after eating biryani from a restaurant in Karachi’s Saddar area on the night between Friday and Saturday.

Police and family claimed that the cause of death could be poisonous food they had eaten in a restaurant.

The five siblings died in a tragic incident aged between eighteen months to nine years old. Their mother and aunt also admitted to a hospital. The deceased children were identified as one-and-a-half-year-old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, Aliya, 6, Tauheed, 7, and Salwa, 9. Police officials said that the sixth victim was their mother, namely Bina, 28, and seventh victim was their father’s sister who’s in a critical condition. A special team of doctors conducted the post-mortem of the deceased.

The victims were brought to a private hospital located at the Stadium Road where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival. Their mother was later discharged from hospital after medical first aid while their aunt remained admitted to hospital’s ICU with critical condition.

Police officials said that they are trying to collect all the samples family has consumed and arrested some 15 employees of the restaurant, securing the crime scene.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah taking serious notice of the death of five children and a girl reportedly after consuming poisonous food purchased from a restaurant located in Saddar area.

The chief minister directed Commissioner Karachi to personally visit the guest family of Quetta and initiate inquiry as per their statement and guidance. He also directed Sindh Food Authority to collect samples of food from the restaurant and send them for lab test.

The initial report sent to the chief minister by the Sindh Food Authority and police says that a family from Quetta, Balochistan reached Karachi last night around 8pm and stayed in a room at Kasar-e-Naz, a federal government lodge.

While coming from Quetta, the family stayed in Khuzdar and Hub and took some food. When they entered in Karachi last night the family took packed biryani and ate in the room. After eating biryani, wife started vomiting and she was taken to AKU hospital by her husband. In the morning of Friday when he came back in the room with his wife, his five children and one girl, a relative, were found unconscious. He took them to hospital, but all declared dead.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was told by Sindh Food Authority (SFA) that it collected 20 samples from Naubahar restaurant and seven samples from student’s biryani, six samples from room of Kasar-e-Naz.

The SFA has also sealed Naubahar restaurant and kitchen of Student’s Biryani. The Authority has also sealed kitchen of Kasar-e-Naz temporarily because it was quite dirty and they would remain closed till the lab results are not received. The concerned police have also taken action as per their procedure.

The chief minister also directed the Commissioner Karachi to arrange shifting of the aggrieved family along with six bodies back to Balochistan. “I am deeply saddened by this incident, and I can feel the parents’ pain,” Shah said. “They will get justice,” he added.