VEHARI, Jan 15: Six people are still hospitalised and struggling for life after they took toxic liquor on Saturday in Dunyapur, Dawn has learnt. A liquor dealer, Hamid, is believed to be the supplier of the liquor that killed eight people.

Sources said Hamid allegedly brought the liquor from Multan on Saturday night and sold it to his clients. Fourteen people from Gharibabad were among his clients who gathered in a Jallah Arain hotel and took the liquor.

After a few minutes, they all fell unconscious. Other people at the hotel called local doctors but their condition did not improve.

The hotel owner informed the victims’ families. When they reached there, six had died. Families shifted two bodies to their houses and without informing police. The other four bodies were handed over to their families after an autopsy in the Makhdoom Aali rural health centre (RHC). Six still hospitalised are: Wazir Ali, Latif Qasai, Pappi, Rabnawaz, Sajjad Khokhar and Shehzad. Sources said the affected people had been shifted to various south Punjab hospitals.

Area people said they had informed police about the liquor sale, but police did not take any action. Source said about 100 liquor dealers were working in Dunyapur.

Jallah Arain Police Station SHO Sheikh Muhammad Aslam said police had formed three teams to arrest the culprits. He claimed that a majority of family members of the deceased had gone underground to avoid police action.

Lodhran DHO Dr Habibur Rehman said that no liquor-affected patient was being treated in any government hospital in Lodhran. He said that autopsy reports had confirmed that the liquor was poisonous.