19 November 2004	Friday	06 Shawwal 1425

HYDERABAD, Nov 18: A man, Shahnawaz, son of Bashir, died on Thursday due to consumption of poisonous liquor, raising the toll to 20. The victim was a resident of Makrani Para. His death was confirmed by Dr Kashif of the Civil Hospital.

Meanwhile, an interim report prepared by the inquiry officer of the excise and taxation department, Mr Ghulam Ahmed Arain, has revealed that all those who have died are themselves responsible as they consumed non-permitted liquor.

The subject of the interim report has been mentioned as "death of some persons due to use of poisonous contraband liquor".

The inquiry officer recorded statements of affected people and relatives of the deceased in different localities.

He said that deceased persons had prepared the liquor through their own formula after mixing spirit and referred to statements of doctors and medico legal officers that liquor used by deceased was a combination of spirit, limestone and mercury which makes it highly poisonous and ultimately causes deaths. He also hinted at the possibility that spirit could be of expired date.

The report said that affected people did it at their own level and it was their "in-house activity". It was learnt that there were 14 licence holders in the district. The licences are issued by the Excise and Taxation Officer.

Excise officials were verifying their licences whether they were valid ones.

They are supposed to pay annual fee of Rs400 for sale of excise items and each licensee could obtain 60 gallons of spirit in a month on the production of the CNIC.

ETO Amir Waheed claimed that a majority of licence-holders regarding sale of spirit possessed valid licences and there was only "remote possibility" that the shopkeepers of Hyderabad including those who were being held responsible for selling sub-standard spirit had not got their licences renewed.

He said an official of the branch was supposed to deal with the licences of spirit sellers. He said that licence to any shop-owner mention the quantity of spirit to be sold by him in a month and permits of those who sell below 60 gallons of spirit were handled by an inspector level excise official.