According to a report based on the initial laboratory tests, the sweets contained highly toxic chemicals which are also used in insecticides. The toxic chemical chlorophene was found in the sweets, which is used to kill insects on watermelons, cotton and spices.
According to doctors, the toxic chemical adversely affects the brain, heart and muscles directly. The poisonous sweets became the cause of two more deaths today, as the death toll soared to thirty today. As many as ten people are still undergoing treatment in hospital from consuming the poisonous sweets.
Doctors were also of the view that the death toll could have been much lower, had the patients been brought to the hospital earlier. Police have taken into custody three persons, including the owner of the shop for further questioning and sealed the sweet shop.
The incident took place in the town of Karor Lal Essan in Layyah District on April 21, when sweets were distributed on the occasion of birth of a child. At least six people had died the same day while a number of more deaths have occurred later since then.
