From 20 April to 8 May 2016, at least 33 people, including five children, died in District Layyah, Punjab, Pakistan after eating a purposely poisoned laddu, a baked confection. [1] Testing of the confectioneries revealed they were laced with the highly toxic insecticide chlorfenapyr. A sweet shop owner, Khalid Mahmood, confessed to mixing the pesticide into the sweets after an argument with his brother and co-owner. [2]
A pesticide shop, close by the bakery where the sweets were bought, was being renovated, and the owner had left his products at the bakery for safekeeping. [3] Mahmood may have used a small packet in the sweet mixture. [4]
A man bought 5 kg of laddu for the celebration of a newborn on 17 April. At least 50 people consumed the sweets and ten of them died the same day. [3] On 25 April, the death toll rose to 23 with 52 people still being treated at various hospitals. [4] On 1 May the death toll rose to 33 with 13 people in hospital. [3] [5] The baby lost his father, six of his uncles and one aunt.
Two shop owners and one worker were initially arrested. [3] Two weeks later the police announced that Mahmood had confessed.
The Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, stated that the incident would be thoroughly investigated, and ordered the police to find and take action against the responsible people. [6]
The Chief Minister of Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif, visited Layyah on 2 May, and expressed his condolences and regrets for the loss of life. [6]
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (Urdu: پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ن), abbr.PML(N) or PML-N) is a centre-right, conservative political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third-largest party in the Senate. The party was founded in 1993, when a number of prominent conservative politicians in the country joined hands after the dissolution of Islamic Democratic Alliance, under the leadership of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The party's platform is generally conservative, which involves supporting free markets, deregulation, lower taxes and private ownership. Although the party historically supported social conservatism, in recent years, the party's political ideology and platform has become more liberal on social and cultural issues; however, members have been accused of using Islamist populist rhetoric. Alongside the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), it is one of the three major political parties of the country.
Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central America, Pakistan, Brazil and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in colour. It contains up to 50% sucrose, up to 20% invert sugars, and up to 20% moisture, with the remainder made up of other insoluble matter, such as wood ash, proteins, and bagasse fibres. Jaggery is very similar to muscovado, an important sweetener in Portuguese, British and French cuisine. The Kenyan Sukari ngutu/nguru has no fibre; it is dark and is made from sugarcane and also sometimes extracted from palm tree.
Laddu or laddoo is a spherical sweet from the Indian subcontinent made of various ingredients and sugar syrup or jaggery. It has been described as "perhaps the most universal and ancient of Indian sweets."
Mithai (sweets) are the confectionery and desserts of the Indian subcontinent. Thousands of dedicated shops in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sell nothing but sweets.
Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi is a Pakistani politician who served as the 29th Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2022. He previously held the post from 2008 to 2011. He had been a member of the National Assembly from August 2018 till January 2023. He is the vice chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf political party since December 2011. Previously, he was a member of the National Assembly from 2002 to May 2018.
Potha Sharif is a village and union council of Murree Tehsil in the Murree District of Punjab, Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the tehsil at 33°57'0N 73°30'0E, and is bounded to the north by Phagwari, to the south by Sehr Bagla, to the west by Rawat and to the east by Kashmir. The village contains the mazar of the Sufi saint Hazarat Dada Malik Suraj Abbasi, forefather of the Potha Shareef people. He had seven sons and their descendants are currently present in Potha Shareef. People visit the mazar from different areas of the country to offer tribute.
Maner also spelled Maner Sharif, is a Block and satellite town in Patna Metropolitan Region. It is part of the Patna district in the Indian state of Bihar. Maner Sharif lies 24 km west of Patna, the capital of Bihar on NH-922. The town has tombs of Sufi saints Makhdoom Yahya Maneri and Makhdoom Shah Daulat, known as Bari Dargah and Chhoti Dargah.
Raja Riaz Ahmed Khan is a Pakistani politician who had been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023. Previously, he was the Punjab Minister for Irrigation and Power and was also the member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab between 1993 and 2013. He had been the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan from May 2022 till August 2023.
Sabzazar is a neighbourhood and union council located in Allama Iqbal Zone of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Sabzazar is divided into two subdivisions, phase 1 & phase 2.
Gourmet Foods is Pakistani retail chain of food products with its company headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan. It has seven processing units across the country and over 100 stores in Lahore.
The Sharif family is a Pakistani political family based in Lahore, Punjab. They belong to the Bhat Kashmiri tribe which is a large community living in many districts of Punjab. They have had two members of the family that became prime ministers of Pakistan them being Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif respectively.
NA-183 Taunsa is a constituency for the National Assembly of Pakistan.
Colonel Shuja KhanzadaHS TBt was a Pakistani politician and Pakistan Army colonel, who served as the Home Minister of Punjab from 2014 until his assassination on 16 August 2015.
The following lists events that happened during 2016 in Pakistan.
On 27 March 2016, on Easter Sunday, at least 75 people were killed, and over 340 were injured, in a suicide bombing that hit the main entrance of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest parks in Lahore, Pakistan. The attack targeted Christians who were celebrating Easter. The majority of the victims were women and children. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack led to worldwide condemnation and national mourning throughout Pakistan. Pakistan also launched a widespread counter-terrorism operation in South Punjab, arresting more than 200 people who may have had a possible connection to the attack.
Mahar Ijaz Ahmad Achlana is a Pakistani politician who is a Member of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, from October 2002 to May 2013 and from August 2018 to January 2023.
The 2020 Punjab alcohol poisoning was an incident in late July and early August 2020, where at least 100 people died after drinking illegally-made toxic alcohol in Punjab, India. Hundreds of raids were conducted in the three affected districts - Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran - along with several other places in and around the Rajpura and Shambhu border in Punjab. Forty people were arrested in relation to the incident. Seven excise officials, six policemen were also suspended over the incident.
The events listed below are both anticipated and scheduled for the year 2023 in Pakistan.
