Moonshine kills 17 near Hyderabad

The consumption of toxic liquor claimed 17 lives, while at least three people lost their eyesight, in the villages on the boundary between Hyderabad and Tando Allahyar districts on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to some reports.

The reports said that 12 people reportedly died in the rural parts of Tandojam town of Hyderabad and five in Tando Allahyar. However, police in Hyderabad gave a much lower death toll of 4-5 deaths and confirmed that the first information report (FIR) had been lodged.

The Hyderabad police confirmed five deaths in the FIR. However, SSP Sajid Amir Saddozai told The Express Tribune by telephone that there were only four deaths.

A source at the Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, said that more than a dozen people were brought to its emergency wards since Tuesday and some of them died during treatment. Seven deaths occurred on Tuesday, while three succumbed to the poisonous liquor by late Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, information about five more deaths surfaced on Wednesday. With the death toll of 17, it would be the second-worst incident of moonshine deaths. In March 2016, at least 55 people, mainly from the Hindu community were killed in the Tando Muhammad Khan district.

The SSP Hyderabad did not provide much information about the suspects, who prepared and sold the illicit liquor. However, an FIR lodged at the Tandojam police station on the state's complaint nominated Qaim Magsi and Bachal Magsi of Subho Magsi village for selling that toxic alcohol.

The complainant in the FIR, ASI Aashiq Ali Shah, stated that they came to know that some people were admitted to the LUH with the complaint of liquor-caused illness. He quoted a patient Yaqoob Baloch, as saying that they bought the liquor from Qaim and Bachal.

ASI Shah said that five of the persons who consumed liquor with Yaqoob Baloch, including Taj Muhammad Magsi, Hamid Ali Rajput, Aamir Rajput, Irfan Rajput and Kewalram, died. These are the same five persons whose deaths were being officially confirmed by the Hyderabad police.

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"We don't have any hospital report on whose basis we can say that liquor was the cause of these deaths. The families are also not accepting that their people died due to liquor," the SSP told The Express Tribune. He added that the police interviewed only three patients at the LUH.

However, a protest demonstration brought out by the family of one of the deceased, Nizam Makrani Baloch, at the Tandojam Naka on Wednesday, suggested that at least one family was publicly admitting the death. The family blamed the local liquor sellers and the police for his death.

The medical officer of the Tando Allahyar Civil Hospital confirmed to the media that the deaths were caused by toxic liquor. "Five patients were brought to the hospital on Tuesday and four on Wednesday. He added that at least two people had lost their eyesight.

Talking to reporters, Akbar Samo, DSP headquarters in Tando Allahyar, quoted a patient as telling the police that the liquor was purchased in Subho Magsi village in Tandojam, Hyderabad. "A toxic chemical is being sold in the name of the liquor," Samo said.

The DIG Hyderabad had formed a five-member inquiry committee, headed by SSP Hyderabad, suspended SHO of Tandojam police station Pervez Yousufzai and issued him a show-cause notice. The SSP and the DSP did not confirm any arrest.