Deaths in Peshawar: Five die after drinking poisonous concoction

Victims drank medical spirit due to non-availability of moonshine, police claim

PESHAWAR: Five people, belonging to the Christian community, died on Wednesday after consuming a toxic concoction in the TV Colony area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) capital.

Three of the deceased – identified as Nasir Masih, Qaisar Masih and Victor Masih – were brothers while Kamal Masih and Raja were their neighbours.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Sardar Masih – father of the deceased brothers – said his sons had been alcoholic for the past two decades and it had been their routine to drink the locally brewed moonshine.

“On Tuesday night, they came home drunk as usual along with their friends. They had had their drinks at around 4 pm as per their routine but at around 8 pm their condition started deteriorating.

“We rushed them to a hospital but Kamal died of poisoning first.  He was soon followed by Victor who died at around 9 pm. Later, Nasir, Qaisar and Raja also died quietly,” he said.

Sardar said his sons Nasir and Qaiser were married and have respectively five and three children. The younger one, Victor, was not married, he added. “It was not their routine to drink at our residence so we cannot tell what actually happened to them and what went wrong,” the father said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, ASP Hayatabad Shoaib confirmed that five people died after consuming poisonous liquor. “However, one of their companions, Shahzad, has survived and is being interrogated about the incident,” he said.

According to the officials, all the six people were sweepers by profession, were addicts and regularly consumed moonshine. “We have discovered that they also consumed medical spirits used in washing and decontaminating wounds in hospitals,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2017.