People who attended the feast complained of fever and nausea on Sunday morning and began to arrive in the hospitals in the area including LNJP, Bada Hindu Rao and private nursing homes by Sunday afternoon.

While LNJP Chief Medical Officer M.S. Chopra said that the poisoning had been caused by the bacteria sapphlococci as well as by the toxins present in rotten meat, many patients, who had not touched meat, blamed the water. Chopra said that rotten and dirty salad greens could also carry the bacteria and ruled out contaminated water. Mohammad Salim, who hosted the feast on the occasion of his daughter's wedding, said that it was prepared by a well known person, Mohammad Hakim, of Madarsa Hussain Baksh.

``Besides, only 100 out of 500 people who came for the wedding have fallen ill. It could be something else,'' he said. Health Minister A.K. Walia who visited the patients in the evening said that he would get the water tank at the community hall inspected for contamination. He said that the government was planning to check all tanks to stop the spread of waterborne diseases.

The hospital was also the scene of political drama as the son of the Jama Masjid Imam, Naib Imam, came there with a crowd of supporters and accused the hospital authorities of neglecting patients. ``They want to gain an edge over MLA Shoab Iqbal who has been here since afternoon,'' a patient's relative said. ``If they had really cared they would not have shouted and crowded here like this,'' she said. Police threw out some of the supporters. Doctors said that the condition of the patients was not serious and they merely needed symptomatic treatment and some rest. Dismissing charges made by some patients that they were being sent away, the doctors said that even if they rested at home they would be fine.