TOBA TEK SINGH: Five suspects believed to be involved in the sale of a poisonous concoction that claimed nearly 40 lives in the city during the Christmas days have been arrested.

This was claimed by District Police Officer Usman Akram Gondal during a press conference on Wednesday.

He said that the media was creating a wrong impression that some staffers of the Chuttiana police station were involved in supplying the toxic liquor, mostly to members of the Christian community living in Mubarikabad Colony.

But the DPO admitted that one of the arrested suspects, Sawan Maseeh, was a policeman and worked as a sanitary worker at the Chuttiana police station. “He was also a rickshaw driver and his rickshaw was hired by three other suspects — Iqbal Rakka Maseeh, a sanitary worker who is among the deceased; Sajjad Maseeh, also deceased; and Adeel Mani Maseeh, who has been admitted to a hospital — to carry away a 20-litre chemical can from a wholesale shop in Rail Bazaar, where items used by barbers are sold, to Mubarikabad Colony on the Christmas day.

The official said the chemical was normally used as aftershave lotion but the suspects mixed it with other poisonous chemicals or water and sold it to merrymakers.

He claimed that owner of the wholesale shop Mohammad Shahid, a former vice chairman of Toba Tek Singh Municipal Committee, his brother Mohammad Qasim and their servant Mohammad Ashfaq had also been arrested in a case registered by the City police under sections 322 punishment for qatl-bis-sabab) and 337-J (causing hurt by means of poison) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the charge of supplying the chemical to the deceased and other affected people.

The district prosecutor will recommend addition of more sections in the FIR.

He said that two of the suspects — Iqbal Rakka and Kamran Kami — had died due to consumption of the chemical, and the third — Adeel Mani — was under detention at the Faisalabad Allied Hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

PROTEST: In the evening, scores of people belonging to the Christian community staged a demonstration when the Punjab chief minister’s inspection team, led by chairman Irfan Ali and accompanied by Additional Inspector General Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh, arrived in Mubarikabad to launch an inquiry into the tragedy.

The protesters raised slogans against the Punjab government and asked the team members to go away and, instead, send Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to Toba Tek Singh. The demonstrators also blocked Toba-Shorkot Cantonment road outside Mubarakabad Colony for half an hour.

On the other hand, Rashid Jalal Maseeh, district president of the PML-N minority wing, claimed that majority of the protesters belonged to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Pakistan Peoples Party.

He said that so far 37 Christian and eight Muslim victims had been buried in different graveyards of the city and adjoining villages.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2016