Mysterious circumstances enveloped the case that took place in the SM Denim factory, and staff at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) were baffled when affected workers of the factory were brought to the hospital’s emergency ward on Saturday.

Rumours were rife in the emergency ward, among families of the affected that the victims had been “possessed by an evil being,” as one woman put it.

“My cousin, Sadia, went into hysterics and suddenly started tossing herself across the walls of the factory, and hitting herself with her hands violently, just like the devil had taken possession of her,” said the middle-aged woman who was holding down one of Sadia’s hands. The girl’s fiancÈ held down her other hand.

Sadia, a frail girl with pallid skin, was lying on the bed with her eyes rolling up in her head. She kept trying to bite her fiance’s wrist as he held her down. She kept wriggling as if to break free, but seemed too weak to be able to actually do so.

At the ASH, a strange mood dominated the scene. A psychiatrist on the round, Dr Baqar, told The News that the patients in the ward had been brought in after a choking feeling began followed by a blunt headache and heartburn. He appeared to take the case lightly, however, and said that he suspected that someone in the factory at an authoritative position would have psychologically drilled them to slog under pressure of religion mixed with mysticism to inspire them to work hammer and tongs. This could have instilled some kind of fear in their collective psyche, resulting in this weird behaviour.

“Of course this is a vague accusation, and it is not directed at anyone in particular either at the moment, but I personally feel that this might be one of the causes, because they do seem to be having some sort of psychiatric disorders,” Dr Baqar said.

He explained that nothing could be diagnosed at this precise moment, and a clearer picture would crystallise once the blood test results came in. “Right now we cannot comment much on what has just happened. Some of these people are quite ill it seems, but at the same time, they appear to be very much in their senses,” he said. “Until we have a definite follow-up, I cannot say what this was.”

Although Dr Baqar appeared unwilling to speak of psychological or psychiatric disorders, he agreed somewhat that certain poisonous fumes or gases could have been the cause of these symptoms.

One of the victims, Khalilur Rehman (son of Shamsur Rehman), a resident of Pathan Colony, knew his name, for instance, and was aware of the amount of money in his pocket. On the surface he did not display any signs or symptoms of psychological disorders, yet at the same time, he suspected that one of the police officials, on taking his ID card out of his pocket in front of many eyewitnesses, had managed to steal a hundred-rupee note as well. A lemon, pierced on one side, emerged from his pocket. It was a full lemon which, Rehman said, had been blessed with Quranic verses.

It was slowly also revealed that the workers on that floor used to recite Sura Yaseen, a Quranic verse, everyday before they began work. Sura Yaseen is usually recited at times when people find themselves in distressful situations, and it is recited so that the “evil being” may not possess them in any way.

An ordinary day at work would not prompt anyone to recite a Surah for personal protection, but in this factory it came out to be that the Surah was recited everyday before starting work.

An insider at the factory told The News, off the record, that there could be a reason as to why this could have been taking place. One could be that the union members of the factory, who wanted their demands met, had stage-managed the entire scene. He did concede, however, that the idea was just a stray thought and not necessarily the correct one.

The situation was thus that the factory management started to realize that in the past one week, around three to four people were falling sick with the same symptoms every day. And after an hour-and-a-half they would be back to normal.

The worried management called the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) for help, it was revealed from an overheard discussion between two high-level doctors from the ASH.

Officials from the PCSIR later told The News that this kind of incident did not fall under their jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, a doctor had been called to superficially scan through the factory. He sported a long beard, and a dark bluish prayer-mark on his forehead, and was mistaken for an exorcist.

“In my observation, the rooms were very well-ventilated, and there were large windows. In short during my observation there was nothing I could give as a proper medical reason which had caused these people to end up in this state. But since I am not a specialist in the field of chemical examinations, I know that what I am giving right now is only my modest observation of the factory,” he specified.

Soon after, Sindh Assembly Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza, who had been present at the ASH, abruptly excused all reporters from the room, without letting the print media ask questions from Dr Ashfaq. Some of the victims have, meanwhile, been pronounced as being out of danger, and have returned home. Abdus Sattar Edhi gave Rs5,000 to every patient from the factory.

Copyright: The News (Pakistan)