'Food poison' deaths: Police launch hunt for restaurants' owners

KARACHI: A special team of Karachi police on Saturday carried out raids at different places in the metropolis to arrest the owners of two restaurants – Naubahar and Student Biryani – in the wake of the deaths of six people, including children, from suspected food poisoning, ARY News reported.

The police have constituted a special team to arrest and probe the owners – Abid Jamshed and Pervaiz who are said to have gone into hiding following the incident.

Investigators said it was necessary to investigate the owners of the restaurants in question, adding that the police teams raided their offices to arrest them but to no avail.

Meanwhile, video clips acquired by ARY News paint a sorry picture of food hygiene at the restaurants’ kitchens as food items can been seen stored at unhygienic places there.

In an initial report, the Sindh Food Authority (SFA) had informed the Sindh chief minister on Friday that food samples collected from the Naubahar Restaurant – from where the victims’ father parceled food – and Qasar-e-Naz – where the family was staying –, had been sent to a lab for testing.

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The victims’ father, Faisal Zaman had come to Karachi from Quetta with his wife Nida Faisal and their five children, including Abdul Ali, Aziz Faisal, Alina, Tauheed and Salwa. Faisal’s sister Beena also accompanied them.

En route to Karachi, the family had lunch in Khuzdar and then briefly stopped at Hub to buy the children snacks.

The family had arrived in Karachi on Thursday evening and checked into Qasr-e-Naz – the government officers’ lodge.

Faisal had bought biryani from the Naubahar Restaurant and brought it to the guest house.

Hours later, Nida’s health had deteriorated and asked her husband to take her to a hospital. As he returned to the guest house after shifting his wife to a private hospital, he had found his children in an unconscious state.

He had immediately moved them to the hospital where they were pronounced dead by doctors.The siblings’ aunt, however, breathed his last at a local hospital on Saturday.