Five arrested as death toll from toxic sweetmeat climbs to 27

Local police on Tuesday made five arrests as death toll from toxic sweetmeat in Layyah climbed to 27.

According to District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Ali Zia, besides the owner of a urea factory that was raided upon on the suspicion that a pesticide Sulfonyl might have been used in production of the sweetmeat (by mistake), sweets shop owner Khalid Mahmud and his two brothers have also been arrested.

The DPO said that a police team, on a tip-off, raided the Sulfonyl urea factory located at Chowk Azam and arrested its owner and four others. The factory was sealed and a huge quantity of prohibited Sulfonylurea was also seized during the raid.

So far, at least 26 people have died after a family and their relatives consumed toxic sweetmeat in a Layyah village while they were celebrating the birth of a baby boy on April 20.

EDO Health Ameer Abdullah said more than 20 people were still under treatment in Multan’s Nishter Hospital and District Headquarters Hospital Layyah.

He said the Health Department had sealed the sweets shop and sent samples of poisonous sweet for lab tests. “We have also lodged an FIR under the pure food act against the shop owner,” added the EDO.

Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin and Punjab Food Authority Director Ayesha Mumtaz, who reached Layyah for investigation, were of the view that “cheap or expired liquid glucose might have been used in the sweet at the shop instead of sugar”. Health authorities however suspected that someone might have put pesticides in the sweets. Further investigation is in underway.