BAHAWALPUR: A woman allegedly administered poison to her four minor children and also committed suicide by taking it herself at her house at Ghausia Colony in Yazman tehsil about 40 kilometres away from here on Tuesday.

Police and Rescue 1122 sources said Mehnaz, 30, had strained relations with her husband Muhammad Ramzan due to financial constraints. She first administered poison to her children – two-month old Faizan, Ayan, 3, Rabia, 7, and Murtaza, 5, – and later took it herself.

They said relatives shifted three of the children to Head Rajkan health centre by motorcycle while an ambulances took Mehnaz and a child to Yazman THQ hospital. After some time, all of them were shifted to the Bahawal Victoria Hospital (BVH) emergency ward where Mehnaz breathed her last. The four children were in a critical condition at the hospital where doctors were trying to save their lives.

The Head Rajkan police said legal action could be taken after complaint either by woman’s husband Ramzan or any relative. They said the possibility of poisoning the woman and her children by someone else could not be ruled out.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022