ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: Autopsy on the bodies of three children, who died under unexplained circumstance on Thursday in Lohi Dandhi has failed to establish the cause of the death, sources told Dawn.

Medico Legal Officer of Federal Government Services Hospital, Dr Tanver Afsar Malik told Dawn that he suspected suffocation as the cause of death.

However, he said they could not find any signs of suffocation, injuries and strangulation on the bodies of Hasnanin Abbas, KanwalShahzadi and Mishal Fatima during autopsy.

Samples were taken from their bodies for chemical examination and histopathology tests to determine the actual cause of death, Dr Malik added.

He said other three siblings of the victims, Malia Batool, 7, Minhail Zahra, 6, and Iqra, 4 were discharged from the hospital on Friday after their condition stabilised.

They were suffering from light pneumonia and acute respiratory tract infection.

They were also present in the same room where thethree victims breathed their last.

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

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 the children.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.