‘LIGHT BLUE AND BROWN LIQUIDS FOUND IN VICTIMS’ NOSE’

A FATHER and son from Cardiff died of poisoning in Bangladesh last week while three other members of their family are receiving treatment, reports said.

Rafiqul Islam, 51, and his son Mahiqul, 16, died last Tuesday (26) when they were being taken to a hospital. His wife Husnara and daughter Samira – both in critical conditions – and eldest son Sadiqul were in intensive care, police said.

The family of the taxi driver from the Riverside area of Wales’ capital were on a two-month holiday and staying in a flat in Sylhet city in north-eastern Bangladesh.

“We believe this may have been a case of poisoning,” superintendent of police Farid Uddin said.

“Our primary suspicion is they were poisoned. When we reviewed the incident – all the members of the family had slept in the same room, the doors were locked and there was no sign of forced entry or trauma – with our prior experience, the case of poisoning made sense,” he was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

“We are doing everything necessary to determine the cause of their death. Our team has already preserved samples from the deceased persons, and we have also collected samples. They’ll be further examined in our laboratory and we’ll have a better understanding of the cause of their death.”

Media reports said investigators conducting an autopsy found “light blue and brown liquids” in the nose of the father and son.

“How were they poisoned? How did they die? We will be able to confirm after an investigation… But, at first glance, it looks like murder using poison,” Mail Online quoted Uddin as saying.

All five were sleeping in the same room on Monday (25) night and other residents of the building raised the alarm the next morning as the family did not wake up. Police broke into the flat and found all five members unconscious. They were rushed to a hospital where Rafiqul and Mahiqul were declared dead.

The post-mortem report was expected soon. “The other people in the building are close relatives of the victims. We questioned them. At the moment, we believe they fell asleep after dinner last night,” Uddin said.

Rafiqul’s brother-in-law Abdul Mumin Khan described the deceased man as a “very friendly” and “nice guy” and said that his son was “sweet”.

The Bangladeshi community in Cardiff mourned the death of Rafiqul and his son.

Bangladeshi Association Cardiff assistant secretary Mohammad Rafiqul Islam the BBC, “It’s summer holidays and a lot of British-Bangladeshi people are in Bangladesh right now, especially in Sylhet, Osmani Nagar and Tajpur”.