At least 279 police recruits were hospitalized after being affected by food poisoning due to unhygienic food served at Razzaqabad Police Training Centre (RPTC) on Sunday night.
Hundreds of police recruits under going training at RPTC suffered acute symptoms of severe gastric stress after eating contaminated food provided by the in-house mess.
Hospital sources said that contaminated food consumed by the trainee cops at breakfast, lunch and dinner was said to be the cause of this mass hospitalization.
According to the Deputy Director Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Simi Jamal, 244 officers affected with food poisoning were admitted to the hospital and over 100 trainee cops were discharged after a marked improvement in their condition.
“We are sending patients back to the training center as they are getting better, but not without a final medical examination”, she said.
On the other hand, 35 police recruits were rushed to a hospital near Pakistan Steel Mills.
Sources at the police academy said that the last meal served at the mess was a dish of chickpeas and boiled eggs.
Enraged fellow trainee cops held cooks responsible for the incident and stormed the dining-room/kitchen venting their anger by vandalizing the furniture, utensils, etc.
Authorities on Monday arrested the person in charge of the police training center’s canteen who had served contaminated food to the recruits.
Sindh Governor and Chief Minister had ordered an enquiry into the incident and a committee had been set up, comprising DIG Inspection and DIG Training.
