KARACHI: As Eid Al-Adha draws close, the bustling streets of Karachi have an unusual sight to offer: bouncers and armed security personnel protecting sacrificial animals and chaperoning entourages to and from cattle markets.

Ahsan Abbas, an official at Al-Aman Security Company, said it was because of soaring crime rates in Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital that the company got the idea to introduce a security scheme specifically tailored for Eid Al-Adha, which will be celebrated on June 19 in Pakistan this year.

Local residents have increasingly reported armed robberies near Karachi’s main cattle market this year and traders and citizens alike have called for enhanced security measures such as regular patrols by police and paramilitary Rangers to ensure the safety of people and the animals they purchase for the Feast of the Sacrifice.

Security concerns have also grown since the Karachi Cattle Market, the largest in Asia, was ordered by a court to relocate from its legacy location at Sohrab Goth to the more remote Northern Bypass area of the megacity. 

“Considering the current circumstances, our company has launched an Eid package specifically designed for Bakra Eid [Eid Al-Adha],” Abbas, who is the in-charge of the Qurbani Security project, told Arab News. “And Karachi residents have really embraced it as a necessity and have utilized it.”

“We have received several, countless number of calls wherein we have deployed our bouncers, our vehicles for people who have taken bouncers from us to go to the [cattle] market,” Abbasi said.

“There is also another segment of clients who have deployed our security guards after purchasing their animals, bouncers who will stay with the animals from the time of purchase until Eid, ensuring that no disturbances or potential losses or damage occurs to them.”

Private security officials say Sindh police are already overwhelmed with street crimes, with the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) recording 37,282 incidents of street crimes in Karachi in the first five months of 2023.

A spokesperson for Sindh police did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

But amid soaring inflation in Pakistan, when a goat or sheep can cost up to Rs50,000 and larger animals like cows and camels as high as Rs200,000 and 400,000 respectively, the anxiety related to being robbed at cattle markets, or having your animal stolen after purchase, is all too real.

“We purchase [sacrificial] animals after careful consideration so their security is also our responsibility,” local trader Ghayyur Ali told Arab News at Pakistan Quarters, a locality near Mazar-e-Quaid in Karachi.

“Given the current circumstances, if someone takes them [animals] or snatches them at gunpoint, well, that is why I thought it best to have guards in place,” said Ali.

Several incidents of snatchings at gunpoint have recently been reported along the route to the Karachi’s main cattle market on the Northern Bypass that connects the M-9 motorway to Karachi Port. Thus, said Muhammad Zafar Qadri, a security expert and an official of the Al-Aman company, hiring private security had become the “need of the time.”

“The police can do their utmost but given their limited workforce and the constantly ongoing robberies, there comes a point when the police’s capacity is overwhelmed. Hence, people turn to hiring private security companies,” he said.

This is also why Muhammad Ali, 58, a trader living in the PECHS neighborhood of Karachi, said he had employed armed guards this year to chaperone him and his family to the cattle market.

“It’s not possible without guards,” Ali told Arab News. “The circumstances today are not the same as in the past. Considering the rise in street crimes, it would be wise to take along two guards.”

“My children, friends, and I all enjoy strolling through the cattle market, buying with our hearts, indulging in food and drink. It’s a time of enjoyment at the cattle market,” he added.

“And now it has become necessary to keep security in order to continue our enjoyment.”