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Gujarat, India: 107 Killed from Drinking Illegal Toxic Alcohol

by cyn.khoo | July 10, 2009 at 01:10 pm

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As of Friday, July 10, up to 107 people in Gujarat, India, have died from drinking illegal toxic alcohol.

Police have begun raids across the state, detaining over 800 people while schools and colleges in the city of Ahmedabad, location of the deaths, have shut down in protest.

Alcohol is banned in Gujarat, but the substance is brewed illegally and deaths from drinking it are common, as brewers often add chemicals and pesticides in order to strengthen the drink. In 2008, approximately 150 people died after drinking contaminated alcohol in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Most of those who died lived in slums, and Manish Doshi, leader of the youth opposition Congress party, declared the high death toll "really shameful on the part of the state government".

"It's been three days since the tragedy took place and the government has done nothing," he said.

The Congress has called for Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to resign, and the state government has to date suspended six policemen for negligence.

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158

at 16:05 on July 10th, 2009

a tragic story.

sara star

at 11:07 on July 11th, 2009

How does pesticide boost its strength?

Illegally brewed alcohol is readily found across India and is popular because it is cheap and said to be stronger than legal brews.

But it is often laced with chemicals and pesticides in an attempt to boost its strength and has often caused people to die.