HYDERABAD, Nov 19: The death in the poisonous liquor tragedy rose to 22 after two more persons died here on Friday. Meanwhile, the provincial excise adviser absolved his department of responsibility for the deaths.
Ishaq, who died on Friday, had been in police custody and admitted to the Civil Hospital's medical-2 ward. Apparently his condition was stable but it suddenly deteriorated and he died.
His 70-year-old father Fayyaz Qureshi and younger brother Rehan had died earlier when the tragedy hit the city during Dewali and Eid celebrations. Victor Bhatti was brought dead to the hospital. His family denied that he had consumed liquor and said that he had been "ill".
He was a resident of Latifabad-10 in the jurisdiction of the B-section police. A police source told this correspondent that Bhatti was an addict and had consumed liquor eight to 10 days ago.
Meanwhile, DPO A. D. Khawaja has suspended SHO of Baldia Ghulam Raza Marri after an excise team seized 1,100 litres of liquor in Islmaiya Colony and arrested Haji Bukshal. He has been booked under section 3/4 of the Prohibition for Enforcement of Hudood Ordinance.
The Market police have obtained 5-day remand of Irfan, Amir and Hera Lal from the court of seventh extra joint civil judge. They were arrested by police in the wake of recent deaths due to consumption of spirit-mixed liquor.
ADVISER: Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Excise and Taxation M. A. Jalil has absolved the excise officials of responsibility for deaths of 22 drinkers of poisonous liquor and held society responsible for the tragedy.
Talking to journalists here on Friday after visiting the hospital and affected people, he refused to suspend any excise official on this account and told newsmen to wait till the submission of preliminary report of an inquiry into the deaths to him within three days.
The provincial adviser expressed regrets on behalf of the Sindh government on unfortunate deaths. He said that consuming the spirit as liquor was tantamount to taking poison. He added that the spirit was used in different items and nobody knew that it would be used as liquor and lead to such tragedy.
He said that no department could be held responsible for negligence as, according to him, the police and excise departments had played their due roles. He said that the police had made announcements from mosques, warning people not to use the spirit as liquor as it could claim their lives.
He clarified that the sale of spirit could not be banned because it was used for different purposes in various fields. He further said that it was supplied under proper license but in the present case it had been misused.
Mr Jalil said that if anyone used it for intoxication, it was his personal act. He said that an investigation team had been formed and if any dereliction of duty was found on part of any official, action would be accordingly taken.
The adviser said that he had interviewed relatives of the deceased and affected people and all of them said that it was for the first time that such incident had occurred because people had consumed spirit after mixing it with alum and ammonium chloride.
He dispelled the impression that the Sindh government was responsible for the incident and said that the society was responsible where poverty, unawareness and illiteracy were rampant. "We will try to inform people about hazards of the spirit", he observed.
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