The Islamabad Police impounded a huge stock of liquor during search of a house in Sector F-11/4 on Thursday night.
After a tip off, the police first arrested a man with five cases of beer and five bottles of liquor in an F-11 side-street. The man, identified as Abdul Aziz, told the police that he had brought the liquor from House 251, Street 54, F-11/4.
The police obtained search warrants for the house and during the search, found a huge stock of branded liquor. Police said the house was in the name of Anila, a Philippines national.
The two occupants, Imran Yunus and Shabbir, failed to produce any permit or licence. They were both arrested, while another two men, identified as Suhail and Saleem, managed to flee the house. A car with red diplomatic plates was also found parked in the house.
Police said a total of 20,352 bottles of beer and 18,597 bottles of liquor of various types were impounded and all five men, including the two that escaped, were booked under prohibition laws.
The suspects were produced before a judicial magistrate on Friday and given into police custody for a day.A police officer told The Express Tribune that Anila worked at the Philippines embassy as a telephone operator. He said police would try to authenticate whether the diplomatic plates on the car are authentic. “The number plate looked fake,” he said.
Imran Feroze Malik, counsel for the suspects, claimed the liquor had been brought in through the Islamabad Dry Port under a permit and after paying duties on it. “There is no justification for the arrests if the government had permitted the consignment,” he said, and added that the liquor stock had been brought for the diplomatic community ahead of Christmas. He said the consignment belonged to the diplomatic community and the men arrested from the house were just “delivery men”.
