Sacrificial animals trade reach to climax on eve of Eidul Azha
PESHAWAR (APP): The trade of sacrficial animals on Tuesday reached to climax in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on eve of Eidul Azha.
Despite hot sunny day, the people thronged to cattle markets to buy an appropriate sacrficial animal under their budget amid bargaining between buyers and traders.
Being a holiday, Govt and semi Govt employees also rushed to cattle markets flooded with small and large sacrficial animals brought by local and inter provincial dealers.
With water bottle in hand, Khurshid Khan (35), an employee of Govt deptt was seen engaged in hectic arguments with cattle traders one after another hoping to buy a small sacrificial animal at reasonable price to commemorate the supreme sacrifices of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS) and Hazrat Ismail (AS).
Engaged with arguments with local and inter-provincial cattle traders at Peshawar’s largest Lala Qala cattle market flooded with sacrificial animals was seen using his argument skills besides making determined efforts to convince the cattle dealers after they declined his Rs100,000 offer for a Kohistani sheep.
“This morning, I came from Pabbi with a hope to buy a goat or a sheep at a reasonable price ahead of Eidul Azha but its prices were sky high this year compared to last year, and I was now thinking of participating in ‘collective qurbani” with my neighbors.
He was seen continuously drinking water to avoid heatstroke. Khurshid said that he spent almost an entire day to buy a suitable sacrificial animal on reasonable prices at Peshawar and Nowshera cattle markets but in vain.
Besides skyrocketing prices, he said poor sanitation and waste management besides unavailability of shelter shades and cold water have exposed hundreds of thousands of buyers and dealers to heatstroke in Khyber Pakthunkhwa.
Khan and other buyers demanded the KP Govt to regulate prices of sacrificial animals and ensure presence of price magistrates and livestock officials in cattle markets.
Like Khurshid many government officials and pensioners were being seen at cattle markets set up at Lala Kala, Ring Road, Hazar Khwani, Hayatabad and Charsadda Road in Peshawar, Amangarh, Akora Khattak, Risalpur and Pabbi Nowshera district where sacrificial animals have started pouring in Punjab and Sindh provinces for Eidul Azha.
A market survey conducted by APP revealed that the visitors, especially employees of public sector departments and private organizations besides general public and cattle dealers bought choice animals on Tuesday night.
In the wake of scorching heat, he said that small and large enterprises specialising in the sale of sacrificial animals and related services, have entered the digital market space as customers opt to minimise the risk of heatstroke by purchasing sacrificial animals online. He said online businesses have adversely affected sale and purchase of animals in cattle markets in KP.
Apart from domestic traders of KP and Punjab, inter-provincial businessmen of Sindh and Blochistan have also brought their stock to Peshawar from where sacrificial animals were transported to the seven merged tribal districts for high profits.
Sohail Sardar, an inter provincial cattle dealer said that he had transported 25 trucks of cattle from Jacababad and my brother was sent five more trucks to Peshawar that all were sold.
The prices of large sacrificial animals including oxen, buffaloes, camels and cows were relatively reasonable compared to small animals such as goats and sheep in local markets. The prices of small animals including goat and sheep are very high.
Dr Aftab Ahmad, Director Livestock and Dairy Development KP told APP that hundreds of thousands of cattle are being sacrificed in KP on Eidul Azha. He said KP has no viable choice but to import cattle from Punjab to ensure availability of sacrificial animals at reasonable rates to the people, adding that around 70 percent cattle are being brought from Punjab for Eidul Azha.
According to estimates shared by Pakistani tanners, over six million animals, including goats, sheep, cows and camels, worth about Rs531 billion had been sacrificed during the three-day Eid Al-Adha festival last year.
The approximately 6.1 million slaughtered animals include 2.6 million cows, 3 million goats, 350,000 sheep, 150,000 buffalos and 87,000 camels in Pakistan on Eid Al-Adha, as per preliminary data compiled by the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) on the basis of hides received by tanneries last year.
Dr Aftab Ahmad said that several checkpoints were established with the assistance of the provincial government at various places on highways connecting KP with merged areas to control the menace of cattle smuggling.
Dr Aftab said that fumigation spray at cattle markets are being conducted to counter animal diseases in the province and teams including DVM doctors were deployed at different cattle markets for monitoring of animals and for spraying of insecticides.
He urged the cattle owners to ensure cleanliness and use mosquito repellent besides cold shelters as a safety measure for protection of animals from disease and heat.
In case of illness of any animal, he urged people to isolate it and inform Livestock officials forthwith for its treatment. Dr Aftab said the DVM doctors were assigned tasks to visit cattle markets and ensure that animals with symptoms of lumpy skin disease may be isolated and treated on the spot.
