Tragedy struck a Christian neighborhood housing mostly sanitary workers just days before Easter, after three children died and five others were hospitalized from eating sweetmeat laced with poison intended to kill stray dogs.
The incident occurred the night of April 14 in Qila Sahib Singh, a suburban area of Punjab’s Hafizabad district in Pakistan. Videos on social media showed families pleading for help as dozens of Christians gathered at a hospital in Lahore, where the children had been taken for treatment.
According to a First Information Report (FIR) registered by police on the complaint of Shahbaz Masih, a Christian resident, unidentified suspects allegedly fled after distributing the poisoned sweets to children playing in the street.
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“All eight children fell seriously ill after consuming the poisonous sweets and were immediately taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Hafizabad,” the FIR stated. “Three children — 10-year-old Danish, 7-year-old David Shehzad, and 8-year-old Samson — died while the remaining five children, due to their critical condition, were transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Lahore.
“These children include 10-year-old Aatishna, 8-year-old Harry, 10-year-old Kailash, 7-year-old Shehroz, and 10-year-old Shalom,” the FIR continued. The case was registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 337-J (administering poisonous substances) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The FIR urged police to arrest those responsible for poisoning the children.
A statement by Hafizabad District Headquarters Hospital confirmed: “Two children were received dead, one died during the course of treatment, and the other five were managed accordingly and were referred later to the Children’s Hospital in Lahore by Rescue 1122.”
The statement added that the victims were accompanied by a team of government doctors for continuous medical attention.
However, Christian Daily International has learned that, contrary to the FIR’s initial claim, the incident may have been the result of severe negligence by a sanitary worker, whose identity remained unknown at the time of reporting.
“I individually interviewed the three children who have regained consciousness, and all of them told me that they had eaten the sweetmeat from a transparent bag left hanging on a rickshaw parked in their street,” said Ejaz Alam Augustine, a Christian lawmaker in the Punjab Assembly, speaking to Christian Daily International. “One of the deceased boys opened the bag and invited the others to join him. As soon as they ate from the bag, they started falling unconscious one after the other.”
Augustine said the poisoned sweetmeat had been handed to a sanitary worker to throw into the streets, but was instead left hanging on the rickshaw.
He confirmed the deaths of three children and said the condition of two others was critical. “Their lungs have been severely damaged by the poison, but the doctors are trying their best to save the innocent lives. We all need to pray for these children. … May God bless them with life and a complete recovery from the effects of the poison.”
According to Augustine, the Hafizabad Municipal Corporation launched a campaign to cull stray dogs using poison that is not easily available on the open market.
Culling is a common practice in Pakistan to control the stray dog population. However, animal rights activists have long called for the government to adopt birth control methods such as neutering or spaying instead of poisoning the animals.
“There’s a dog extermination unit in every municipal authority in Pakistan, and it is made up of sanitary workers,” Augustine said. “This tragic incident was caused by sheer negligence for which the persons responsible must be punished as per the law.”
He added that the Hafizabad Municipal Corporation was trying to conceal the identity of the supervisor who handed over the poisonous sweetmeat for distribution.
“This incident must be investigated thoroughly to prevent such a tragedy from happening again,” he said.
This article was originally published by Christian Daily International.
Christian Daily International provides biblical, factual and personal news, stories and perspectives from every region, focusing on religious freedom, holistic mission and other issues relevant for the global Church today.
