TOBA TEK SINGH: The death toll in the incident wherein a man had allegedly poisoned all of his family members at Chak 520-GB rose to six on Saturday when his wife and a daughter also died at the Allied Hospital, Faisalabad.

Three daughters and a son of the suspect, Asghar, had died on Friday during treatment at the Toba District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, where they had been shifted after taking tea allegedly prepared with poisonous cow milk.

In her statement to police at the hospital a day earlier, Asghar’s wife Nazia Bibi (45) had accused her husband of mixing poison in the cow milk he had brought following a quarrel with her over financial issues and their daughters’ marriage proposals.

Following death of the couple’s four children — three daughters and a son — at the DHQ hospital, Nazia and her 16-year-old daughter Aqsa had been referred to the Allied Hospital, where both also died.

Police spokesperson says raids are being conducted to arrest Asghar.

Meanwhile, the couple’s daughters and a son, who had died on Friday, were buried at Chak 364-JB, where their bodies were brought by their maternal uncle Muhammad Azam.

Their funeral prayers were attended by a large number of area residents.

The police spokesperson says that the bodies of Nazia and her daughter have been shifted to the DHQ hospital for autopsy.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2024