LAHORE: A man, his wife and five minor children were hospitalised when the head of the family administered them poison over poverty in Shahdara Town area here on Wednesday.

Identified as Aqeel, the head of the family also took the rat tablets later and the police rushed them to a local hospital.

The others were identified as Shakeela Bibi and her children including Komal, Bisma, Nadia, Hassan and Hussain

A police official said Aqeel administered poison to his entire family as it was facing starvation for the last week or so. He said the head of the family was also unable to pay rent to the owner of the house.

The official said Aqeel took extreme step in utter desperation when he found his children and wife hungry for the last seven days.

Following his hard days of life, he first mixed rate tablets in water and administered the same to his wife and children.

He then swallowed the same in a bid to die by suicide, the police official said adding that Aqeel himself called 15 and informed the police about the incident.

A police team reached the spot and shifted them to the hospital where the duty doctors saved their lives by providing emergency treatment. Apparently, all of them were said to be stable, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2024