HYDERABAD, Nov 18: District police authorities have contradicted press reports that 19 people had died after consuming liquor and claimed that according to their investigation only 12 persons had died.

They disputed reports that the deceased had consumed liquor and insisted that they had in fact consumed substandard spirit.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, DPO A.D. Khwaja said it was responsibility of the excise department to issue licences to spirit manufacturers and monitor its sale. He said the spirit was sold at three shops in the city and two of them had failed to get their licences renewed.

Mr Khawaja said it was almost impossible for police to check the sale of spirit as it was purchased by painters and carpenters for polishing furniture.

The police official was of the view that those who had consumed spirit were habitual but this time unfortunately they consumed totally substandard spirit leading to their death. He said the excise department was responsible for the sale of liquor and the police only shared this responsibility.

He said FIR had already been registered and added that all those found guilty would also be taken to task.When his attention was drawn to the seizure of a huge quantity of liquor by the excise department on Wednesday, which was being openly sold under the very nose of police, the DPO said he had already suspended SHO Pinyari police station and action would be taken against him if he was found involved in providing protection to perpetrators of this crime.

Speaking on the occasion, District Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman said the district government had nothing to do with such matters due to ambiguities and anomalies in the Sindh Local Government Ordinance.

He said police or the excise department, except for matters of law and order, were not under his control. He said the investigation police was totally independent and was under no obligation to keep him posted about the investigation process.

He said there was a lack of coordination and the chain of command as far as the district government was concerned.

He said that though he was the chairman of the HDA, but the "authority" was directly under the Sindh government.

The nazim said only recently a DDO for roads had been posted without his knowledge and consultation who was a mechanical engineer.

He called upon the president and other authorities to evolve a modus vivendi with a view to authorizing the district government to supervise and monitor all issues within the district.

DIG OPERATION: DIG operation Mazhar Ali Shaikh in a statement claimed that the police of seven districts of the Hyderabad region was maintaining a strict watch on the sale of liquor.