Poison liquor kills 23 in central Pakistan

MULTAN: At least 23 people have died this week after drinking home-made liquor in central Pakistan, police and hospital officials said Saturday. Seventeen people died in hospital in the central city of Multan in the last two days, while six people died at their homes, doctor Fahim Javed of the city's main Nishtar hospital said. Javed said most of the people died after suffering severe liver damage. Multan police chief Munir Ahmed Chishti said most of the people were poor labourers aged in their 20s who mixed locally made liquor with a chemical to enhance its effects. Chishti said police were trying to round up people involved in making illicit liquor and selling it in the market. Prohibition has been enforced in the Islamic republic since the 1970s but clandestine production of alcohol is rampant especially in the rural areas. Officially two breweries operate in the country to provide liquor to non-Muslim communities, who form three percent of the 150-million-member Muslim state.