NAWABSHAH, Feb 25: Six people died in the Ayub Rind village of the district on Friday, apparently after drinking 'poisonous tea'. Ten members of a family, including women and children, had fallen unconscious after consuming the tea.

The villagers brought them to the People's Medical College Hospital where Kehar Rind, 60, his son Dadan, 33, and daughter-in-law Dhiyani, 35, were pronounced dead. A state of emergency was declared in the hospital and patients were provided treatment but Enayat, 3, Ummedah, and Hamzo, 40, also died.

Relatives of the deceased did not allow doctors to conduct post-mortem, saying it was a natural incident. However, MLO Yar Ali Jamali said blood samples had been sent to laboratory for examination to know the cause of deaths. No FIR was lodged till the filing of this report.

ZAKAT: Efforts are being made to curb corruption in the distribution of Zakat among the deserving people. Speaking at Zakat cheques distribution ceremony at the H. M. Khoja Auditorium on Friday, the chairman of the Sindh Zakat council, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, said the system of the Zakat distribution was functioning according to the 1980 Ordinance. He said Sindh was getting its share of Rs27.5 million as the federal government was distributing Zakat among provinces as per population.