RAWALPINDI: One of the five siblings, who ingested pesticides after being scolded by their father in Bagh Sardaran on Thursday, died at the emergency ward of Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) on Friday.

Three sisters, one of whom is two-and-a-half years old, along with their two brothers were hospitalised after their condition deteriorated on Thursday. Except for their elder sister, Sadaf, 18, who died on Friday, all the victims were school-going children and lived with their father, Ijaz Anwar, in a rented house since the death of their mother in 2014.

One of the sons of Mr Anwar, who is 13-year-old, on Friday regained consciousness and told Chaudhry Akhtar Ali, the SHO of Banni police station who is leading an investigation into the incident, that his father used to humiliate them and always asked them to concentrate on their studies and correct themselves.

The SHO said it was the elder sister, Sadaf, who planned to commit suicide by taking insecticide after being fed up with the scolding of her father. “We took the insecticide with drinking water by ourselves,” the SHO quoted the boy as saying.

He said a report had already been registered with the police on the complaint of the father. However, it is yet to be decided whether an attempted suicide case should be registered or not.

In his report to the police, Mr Anwar said he belonged to Sahiwal and had been living in Rawalpindi for over two decades. He said since the death of his wife, he had been living along with his mother, two sons and three daughters in a rented house.

He said on Thursday morning he had taunted his children over some domestic issue.

“Later, I left for Islamabad at about 1.30pm. After reaching Islamabad, I received a phone call from one of my neighbours that my children had taken poison and their condition was critical.”

Published in Dawn September 10th, 2016