Women attack alcohol vendors with rolling pins

Bootleggers in India are complaining of lost business after attacks on alcohol stalls by angry housewives.

The group of women vigilantes in Pune city call themselves the Bangle Army.

They have gone on a destruction spree at several roadside stalls armed with sticks and rolling pins.

After confiscating hundreds of barrels of drink, the women poured the alcohol down the drain, reports the Sandhya Varta newspaper.

Shubha Shamim, the leader of the group, said: "Since the police pretend that the problem does not exist we are compelled to take action ourselves. Statistics of raids are all that they have to show and that means nothing to us. Families have been destroyed by the poison sold by these joints.

"We are determined to put them out of business even without the police."

The owners of the alcohol stalls - who had briefly disappeared after apparently being warned of the women's attack plans - have surfaced at other locations.

One bootlegger, Ranjit Gaikwad, said: "These activists are being insensitive. We don't force liquor down men's throats.

"They don't seem to realise that by serving liquor we are only reducing tensions for men who work day and night to meet to meet the excessive demands of their wives. Women will never understand the needs of men."