No poison found in food samples from children’s home: forensics

LAHORE: No trace of poison was found in the food samples collected from the house of the two children who died of alleged food poisoning after eating out at a restaurant in Karachi last week, forensics sources said on Friday.

According to sources in the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, analysis of the food samples revealed “no trace of poison such as cyanide, insect killers or any other.”

The sources added that the Punjab Forensic Science Agency was not sent any samples from the children’s post-mortem.

“To find out if the deaths occurred due to bacteria present in [expired meat], food samples will have to be sent to microbiologists,” they added.

Two siblings, 18-month-old Ahmed and Muhammad, 5, died from a suspected case of food poisoning on November 11, after dining out with their mother at a local eatery the previous night. The incident triggered a police investigation into the case, and resulted in the sealing of the restaurant in question.

Samples of more than 30 items from the residence of the bereaved family were taken on November 13 and sent to the Punjab Forensics Laboratory for chemical analysis.

During a raid the same week, the Sindh Food Authority recovered expired meat from the eatery in question, located in the upscale Zamzama neighbourhood of Karachi.