Six die drinking toxic alcohol in Noakhali

Six people died and five others became ill for apparently consuming “toxic alcohol” in Noakhali’s Companiganj upazila on Friday.

The dead are -- Mohin Uddin, 40, Nur Nabi Manik, 50, Rabi Lal Roy, 55, Abdul Khalek, 58, Sabuj, 60 and Liton, 55, -- all from different villages in the upazila.

Liton breathed his last at a Dhaka hospital yesterday while the five others died at different times on Friday, police said.

The law enforcers arrested a local homeopathic doctor Zayed and his son Priyom early yesterday on charge of selling the toxic liquor to the victims.

Arifur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Companiganj police station, said all eleven victims bought spirit from Zayed’s Rafiq Homeo Hall at Bashurhat area on Friday.

Family members buried three of the dead before police came to know about it, he said.

Later, police recovered the bodies of Nur Nabi and Rabi Lal from their houses and sent those to Noakhali General Hospital for autopsy.

Police are waiting for autopsy reports to confirm the cause of their deaths, the OC said.

Meanwhile, the five people who fell ill are being treated at different hospitals. 

Locals said a section of homeopathic doctors in Companiganj and nearby areas had been selling spirit for long.