Liquor sales: Tainted brew kills four

Health workers say many deaths from poisoned liquor go unreported.

MULTAN: Four people in the district died after consuming poisoned liquor in Multan on Wednesday.

Hospitals from all over the district have reported that a vast majority of alcohol poisoning cases are untreatable. “Most of these people are reluctant to seek treatment until their condition becomes critical,” said DHQ hospital medical superintendent, Dr Farooq Inam, adding that most locals were extremely reluctant to admit to having consumed liquor.

A large number of locals in the district have been manufacturing and selling industrial grade alcohol. Over 63 cases have been filed against manufacturers preparing poisoned alcohol in the district. “They mix two major chemicals Methadone and Ethyl and sell them at least 20 times lower than the cost of quality alcohol,” said district police officer (DPO) Multan Dilawar Abbas Naqvi.

Naqvi said that the ratio of chemicals used in the alcohol was never fixed and even the slightest variance could cause fatalities. “These people don’t exactly measure the amounts. The alcohol is prepared on estimation and now they have even begun to use crystals to add colour to the brew,” he said.

Health officials and doctors said that poisoned liquor also caused blindness. “If it doesn’t kill you there is a fair chance that it will leave you blind,” said Dr Shazia Rehman, who works at the THQ hospital.

Medical officials said that the primary victims of poisoned alcohol were labourers and farmers. According to official figures available with the Multan Excise and Taxation department, over 130 people were rendered blind after consuming poisoned alcohol in 2009. The figures go on to highlight that over 800 people in southern Punjab have expired from poisoned alcohol over the past eight years. The fewest deaths took place this year, and so far the death toll is 18 people for all of South Punjab. Health officials said that it was hard to trust official statistics with regards to alcohol poisoning or any other narcotics. “Very few people report alcohol poisoning as an official cause of death and so the real number is likely to be at least 10 times the one that is reported,” Dr Rehman said.

Police officials said that most alcohol related casualties took place near Eid. “Last year several large networks were caught before and after Eid. Over 20 factories manufacturing tainted alcohol were shut down in Multan and 57 were seized in southern Punjab,” the DPO said.

Spokesperson at the Excise and Taxation department, responsible for issuing liquor licenses said that the situation was monitored much more strictly now. “There is nearly a 90 per cent decrease in the official death toll,” E & T director Multan Javid Iqbal said. In 2009, the death toll in the month of December before Eid ul Azha was 96.

E & T officials said that last month they caught one bootlegger who went by the alias ‘Chairman’ and discovered that he was the sole supplier in the district.

In 2009, police officials officially listed 36 casualties by tainted alcohol, whereas unofficial sources said that at least 90 deaths occurred in the month of December alone.

“Mostly the people who are victims, aren’t reported because their families fear being reprimanded by the police and don’t want to confess who gave them the alcohol,” said a health worker Sherbano bibi.

Police officials, who were unwilling to reveal their identity, said that the narcotics trade in southern Punjab had a lot of support from local politicians. DPO Naqvi, who took charge this year, has already conducted several raids in the area and shut down several illegal factories where chemicals were added to alcohol. Some locals have said that this has forced even more people to go underground and fewer people report to hospitals when in critical condition fearing police reactions.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.