Twenty-four people, many of them from a single family, are dead after ingesting sweets that had been mixed with pesticide, Pakistani officials said Monday.
Dozens more have been
hospitalized.
Umer Hayat bought five
kilograms (about 11 pounds) of laddu, a ball-shaped confection composed of
dough and sugar, from Tariq Hotel & Sweet in the village of Karor Lal
Essan, said Layyah District Coordination Officer Rana Gulzar. Located in the
Layyah district of Punjab province, the village sits about 250 miles west of
Lahore.
The sweets were to
celebrate the birth of Hayat's grandson, Sajjad, but recipients of the treats
began falling ill Thursday, Gulzar said.
Hayat is now in
critical condition in a hospital, and six brothers, one sister and two children
in his family have died after eating the laddu.
Investigators say the
shopkeeper's servant has acknowledged that he accidentally mixed pesticide into
the laddu, Gulzar said.
The shop has been
closed down, and the owners, two brothers, have been taken into custody, he
said.
The Punjab Food
Authority is now looking into the matter.
- CNN
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