ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: Three small children died of suffocation in a village overnight but their father blamed black magic for the tragedy, police said on Thursday.

Police found the story told by the father, Zahoor Hussain, the caretaker of a shrine in village Ara in Lohi Dhandi foothills, weird and are investigating.

But the investigators have to wait for the children's mother and three older siblings who luckily survived the tragedy to regain consciousness and health.

Police came to know of the tragedy when the Polyclinic alerted the Secretariat Police Station that Zahoor, along with some neighbours, had brought three children for treatment around 6:30pm who were found dead.

A police team arrived at the hospital and took custody of the bodies of Hasnanin Abbas, 2, Mishal Fatima, 3, and Kanwal Shahzadi, 5.

Zahoor told the police that he lived at the shrine. He went to visit the family in the morning but found the door of the house bolted. As his calls went unanswered, he said he broke into the house and found the family 'asleep'.

When he tried to wake them up, only his wife and three elder children showed signs of consciousness but not the young ones.

According to him the family had closed all windows and lit a coal-fired stove to keep the room warm and gone to sleep.

Asked why it took him so long to bring the children to hospital, he said he tried his 'spiritual healing knowledge' to revive the motionless children and when it did not work he brought them to Polyclinic with the help of some neighbours.

Zahoor however left behind the semi-conscious members of the family at home.

Police visited them later and removed them to a hospital where they are convalescing.