Police sending fake buyers to catch moonshine sellers

Crackdown launched against toxic liquor in twin cities

RAWALPINDI:

Police have sent out fake buyers in slum areas to identify homemade liquor suppliers, officials said. These informers and cops in civvies will fan out in the localities notorious for moonshine making, sale and consumption, particularly around the Christmas and New Year.

The administrations of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have decided to tighten the noose against the toxic alcohol factories and suppliers.

The administration and the police high-ups have ordered all police stations in the twin cities to take action against all such shanty moonshine factories while keeping a watch on the suppliers as well. After these instructions, the police of both cities have started keeping an eye on the elements involved in making and supplying homemade liquor. The police have also prepared fake buyers and dealers to gather information and ascertain action against the racket. The checking on the entry and exit points of Islamabad and Rawalpindi has also been made strict.

Officials said that some unscrupulous elements use clinical alcohol, sedative tablets and juices of rotten fruits to brew liquor which is then sold in bottles of local and foreign brands. In the past scores of people have died and many more have gone blind from this locally brewed concoction.

Bootleggers making this toxic moonshine were likely to bring out their product on the festive occasion of Christmas and the New Year to grab the merriment mood of poor people who could not afford a pint of legally sold liquor available from licenced excise shops for Rs400.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2020.