LAYYAH: The mystery of 31 deaths caused by poisonous sweetmeats was resolved on Thursday when the younger brother of the sweet shop owner reportedly confessed to have mixed pesticide in the products.

Khalid Mahmood, younger brother of shop owner Tariq Mahmood, told police that he spiked the sweetmeats with pesticide after exchange of words with his elder sibling “to teach him a lesson”.

A police official, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that Khalid confessed to have mixed a liquid pesticide, ‘Exeed’, in the material being prepared for manufacturing sweetmeats at the shop owned by his elder brother.

He said on the identification of Khalid, the police recovered the bottle of pesticide he used to poison the sweetmeats that claimed the lives of 31 people.

The police high-ups would brief the media on the case in a day or two, the official said.

Fatehpur police produced Khalid Mahmood in the court of area magistrate of Karor Lal Esan late on Thursday evening where he recorded his confessional statement.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016