Toxic liquor: Three die from drinking poisonous ‘kuppi’

Javed Masih, 32, Ashraf Masih, 55, and a 30-year-old man died in Azizabad after they drank poisonous alcohol.

KARACHI:

Three more people have died within the last two days because of drinking poisonous alcohol.

Javed Masih, 32, Ashraf Masih, 55, and a 30-year-old man died in Azizabad after they drank kuppi or poisonous alcohol a few days ago.

The first one to die was the unidentified 30-year-old on Monday, while Ashraf and Javed died on Tuesday. The police said that the victims were janitors and Javed and Ashraf used to live in Naimat Colony. The unidentified victim lived in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

SHO Haseeb Qureshi said that he had no information about more deaths because only Ashraf was taken to a government hospital. Qureshi said that Ashraf first lost his eyesight and was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. He was later referred to Jinnah hospital where he died. He said that Ashraf had been drinking the same kuppi for the last 20 years. He bought it from his usual dealer in Azizabad.  About 24 people have died since October 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2012.