Death toll from toxic sweets rises to 32 in Layyah

A teenager, Tariq, 17, had passed away in a hospital on Saturday. He was under treatment at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. 14 other people affected of the toxic sweets are still under treatment in the hospital.

Police had initially arrested owners of the sweets shop, Tariq and his brother Khalid. Police had registered a case of attempted murder against them, while Tariq was shifted to undisclosed location for further investigation.

A worker on the shop, Amir, had also been included in the investigation. Khalid said he did not know what poisonous thing got mixed with sweets as he had prepared sweets as regular.

Later, police had carried out a raid at sulfonyl (the poison used in sweets) factory and arrested five persons including its owner.

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.

A man, Umar Hayat, had bought the sweetmeats on the occasion of birth of his child. However,  happiness quickly turned into a tragedy when the sweets turned out to be poisonous. The people who had become extremely unwell after consuming the sweets were shifted to Nishtar Hospital in Multan

Police had reached the scene of the incident and later raided the sweets shop. They had collected a sample which was sent for laboratory tests and sealed the shop.