Karachi Police, on Saturday, formed a three-member committee to investigate to ascertain the cause of death of six members of a family. Five siblings, including one-and-a-half-year-old Abdul Ali, four-year-old Aziz Faisal, six-year-old Aliya, seven-year-old Tauheed and nine-year-old Salvi had died in a suspected case of food poisoning in Karachi on Friday. Their paternal aunt Beena was admitted in the intensive care unit of a private hospital and placed on a ventilator where she breathed her last on Saturday. The investigation committee is headed by Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South, Sharjeel Kharal, and includes Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) South, Pir Muhammad Shah and SSP Investigation, Tariq Dharejo. Police officials noted that the food authority would send food samples from the suspected eatery for forensic testing to a private laboratory while the dead bodies would be tested by Karachi University and Punjab Forensic Lab. The police further maintained that death cases would be registered when the children’s father, Faisal Kakar, returns to Karachi after their burial. Causes of deaths would be confirmed after the conclusion of the post-mortem report. It should be mentioned that the family from Quetta visited Karachi on Thursday where they had eaten food from a restaurant located in Saddar area. They had also consumed food from a restaurant in Khuzdar on their way. In a statement to media sources, police officers said that the children’s mother had started vomiting in the late hours of Thursday night and was taken to a nearby private hospital by her husband. After she was administered first aid, the couple returned to their room in the guest house to find two of their children dead while three others were in an unconscious state. Faisal’s sister was also found sick, they added. Faisal took his family members to the nearby hospital where the children were pronounced dead on arrival while their mother and aunt were admitted for intensive care. Further investigation is underway while the Sindh Food Authority has temporarily sealed the restaurant in Saddar and taken its food samples for chemical examination. The Sindh Food Authority also submitted an initial report to Sindh Chief Minister, Murad Ali Shah, on the incident. Deputy Inspector General South Sharjeel Kharal said that police had already taken 18 employees of the suspected eatery in custody and was now trying to look into samples of all the food consumed by the family on its way from Quetta to Karachi. The children were laid to rest in their hometown in Khanozai on Saturday. After the funeral, Faisal spoke to media persons and asserted that both he and his wife had also consumed the food. “If the food had been sprayed on then I would have also fallen ill, however, I do not want to influence the investigations,” he added. The children’s father was hopeful that a transparent investigation would be conducted soon and acknowledged the utmost cooperation by governments of both Sindh and Balochistan. Published in Daily Times, February 24th 2019.