Making liquor while the sun shines
Earlier, a team of Aabpara Area Police and Eagle Squad of Rescue 15 intercepted a cab and arrested three suspects who were allegedly shifting empty liquor bottles and other distillery equipment from a place in sector G-7 slums. Over five hundred empty bottles were seized from the suspects.
On the information provided by the arrested suspects, the Aabpara Police raided a distillery established in a house in the slum areas of G-7. Another three suspects were arrested from the brewery while police seized over 500 bottles of fake liquor and 12 gallons of alcohol and spirit.
Talking to The Express Tribune, a suspect in police custody, Zeeshan Maseeh, said the empty bottles and stickers were imported from Lahore along with the spirit in gallons. “We mix the alcohol with water and then fill it in the bottles at our local facility. We have the equipment to seal the bottles,” said Maseeh.
The suspects use combs to seal the bottles, police said. “A small bottle is sold for Rs150 and the bigger one for Rs350,” said Khalid Mehmood Awan, the Station House Officer of Aabpara Police Station.
He said the two arrested, 15-year-old Junaid Maseeh and Zeeshan Maseeh, were the suspected bootleggers while Liaqat Maseeh, Junaid Maseeh, Jatan Maseeh and Gulraiz Maseeh were the alleged buyers.
Jatan Maseeh said he had come to purchase liquor for a wedding party. However, police said they had failed to produce any permit for use of liquor.
“We have been smuggling empty bottles and branded fake stickers along with gallons of alcohol from Lahore for the past five years,” said Junaid Maseeh, the arrested bootlegger. “We use taxi-cabs for travelling between Islamabad and Lahore, and have never been caught,” he added.
SHO Awan said that Gulshan Maseeh, the main suspect and notorious bootlegger, had managed to escape from the brewery before the police raid. He said a police team had been constituted to arrest him.
“The fake liquor of this type is prepared by mixing spirit or alcohol with a certain ratio of water. Certain chemicals are also added later before sealing the bottles,” said Mushtaq Ahmed, the sub-inspector who led the police’s raiding party.
He said that the locally made fake liquor was not only consumed in Islamabad, it was also transported to Rawalpindi and beyond. Most of such distilleries are located in the slum areas of Islamabad, added Mushtaq.
Published in The Express Triune, November 14th, 2010.
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