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REGIONAL

Newly opened wine shop gutted in mysterious blaze at Surankote

By News Desk

July 25, 2023

A newly opened wine shop located in Potha area of Poonch’s Surankote subdivision was gutted in a mysterious blaze while police have started investigation into the matter.

The shop, officials said, is located on Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch national highway at Potha.

According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the shop was opened a couple of months ago but it developed sharp criticism in the area and massive protests have taken place in the area in the last three weeks during which people took out rallies, demanding closure of this shop.

A protest was also going on at Surankote sub division headquarter led by DDC member Shahnawaz Chowdhary in which the participants were putting forth their demand for closure of this wine shop.

Meanwhile, in the intervening night of Sunday-Monday, officials said, this shop was gutted in an incident of blaze, which has taken place under mysterious conditions.

In the incident, they said, the liquor kept inside the shop got damaged while other temporary infrastructure installed in the shop also got reduced to ashes.

On Monday morning, officials visited the site and examined the situation while a fire tender was also called in to douse off the flames completely.

Meanwhile, Police said to have started investigation into the matter—(KNO)