LAHORE, July 16: The family of a milkman whose five children had died in the last three months from what the family believed black magic is living in a ‘constant danger’.

Lack of interest on the part of police to solve the mystery and poor investigation have added to a sense of insecurity. Yet, no objective effort, except for making promises by the police highups to help out the family, has been made.

“We wait for death everyday,” Bushra, the mother of the five children, told Dawn on Tuesday, saying: “Everybody advises us not to be superstitious but doesn’t help us find ways and means to solve the mystery.”

Bushra said she and her daughters Uzma, 14 and Sobia, 6, and her husband Ilyas were asleep in the courtyard of the house when “she woke up and saw two cats sitting on the stairs.” She said the cats fixed their eyes on my daughters. She said she woke up her husband. “The cats kept on changing their positions when we tried to scare them away,” she said, adding that her husband took the daughters to a neighbouring house.

“This is one thing I told you,” she said, claiming that she and her daughters listened to different voices coming from various parts of the house.

When asked about leaving the house permanently, she said: “Is this a solution to the problem?”

For the two daughters, Bushra said life had become a hell. They were convinced time and again that there was nothing like black magic but the deaths of their three brothers and two sisters were to scare them.

Ilyas had gone to some exorcist and his wife said she did not believe exorcists any more as all of those tried by the family had failed to solve the mystery deaths. She said even doctors could not came up with any solution yet.

Bushra said the police took them to the Mayo Hospital four days ago where they were not diagnosed with any physical problem.

Meanwhile, autopsy carried out on the body of the last ‘black magic’ victim revealed nothing initially. The inner-parts had been sent to the chemical examiner to locate the cause of death and the report was still awaited.

The investigation officer said they suspected poisoning as prime cause of death. He did not substantiate his point and said: “We are waiting for the chemical examiner report.”

On the other hand, Bushra had lodged a case against her brothers-in-law Fayyaz and Faisal, aunt Rani Bibi and her husband Sadiq. The officer said some of the accused were taken into custody and were interrogated but they were released as nothing was found to help solve the mystery.