Death toll from consumption of poisonous sweet rises to 29

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Another woman who had consumed poisonous sweets on Wednesday lost her life in Jinnah Hospital Lahore, raising the death toll to 29.

The woman named Nusrat, along with five other people, was shifted to Jinnah hospital late Tuesday night. She died in the morning while the other affectees are under treatment.

Dera Ghazi Khan Director General (DG) Health has said that no antidote is available of the toxic used in the sweets. Sulfonylurea, an acid used in the amalgamation of roots, has been used as the toxic in the sweets the antidote of which is not available.

The poisonous sweets were distributed among people after the birth of a child in a family in Layyah.

The Punjab government has constituted a three-member committee to probe into the incident. The government has also issued directives to shift victims to Jinnah Hospital, Lahore.

The pesticide detected in the sweets is banned in Pakistan, and the shops are not permitted to sell it. The police have closed the shop from which the sweets were brought and two owners have been taken into custody.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has finally taken notice of the incident and formed an eight-member team comprising the commissioner Dera Ghazi Khan, Medico Legal Surgeon Punjab Dr Waseem Haider, King Edward Medical University’s Professor of Medicine and forensic agency experts to look into the matter.