Jammu: A mob of villagers angry over the opening of a liquor shop close to a temple, a mosque and a school in their area on outskirts of the city ransacked the outlet and destroyed its entire stock on Saturday, police said.
The villagers also roughed up the owner of the liquor shop in the Khari panchayat in Bishnah area, who had to be rescued by police, they said.
We have been demanding the closure of the shop since its opening some time back but the government failed to take action on our repeated requests, local sarpanch R K Sharma said.
He said the wine shop was set up in an area surrounded by a temple, a mosque and a school.
We do not need wine shops and our protest is against the government which has turned the city of temples into a city of wine shops, he said.
Another sarpanch said the protest was jointly organized by the Panchayat Union of Bishnah belt and we have resolved that we will not allow opening of wine shops in any village .
This belt is home to poor farmers and those earning their livelihood through manual work. We will not allow wine shops here, he said.
Sharma asked the government to provide better opportunities to youths of the area by setting up hospitals, schools and stadiums to channelise youths’ energy in a positive direction.
—PTI

Press Trust of India