Women damage liquor shop, set it alight in UP

Fed up by the district administration's apathy towards their demand of closing down liquor shops near residential areas, a group of women on Sunday ransacked a liquor shop in Phoolghadi area here and set it on fire, police said.

The incident took place shortly after the shop opened around 7 am. The women assaulted the employees of the shop and destroyed bottles of liquor before setting the shop on fire, they said.

"They could only be pacified after police personnel reached the spot and spoke to them," said ASP Ramnayan Yadav.

Fire brigade swung into action soon after and were able to bring the blaze under control after some time. However, the shop still incurred losses worth lakhs of rupees, police said.

The agitating women, who later staged a demonstration on a nearby road, said they had voiced their displeasure regarding the liquor shop earlier too but the district administration refused to do anything about it.

"We had protested against this liquor shop earlier too.

However, neither the police nor the excise department did anything about it. The government should close this shop or else we will continue our agitation," a protester said.