KARACHI: Cattle farm owners in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi said on Wednesday they were left "devastated" after armed men stole 96 sacrificial animals from them within a week, a sign of increasing cases of animal theft ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha.
Makeshift cattle markets prop up in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan before the Eid Al-Adha event begins which is marked by Muslims usually slaughtering goats, cows, and sheep worth millions to honor the Islamic tradition.
As the three-day Eid Al-Adha or "Feast of Sacrifice" festival approaches, incidences of animal theft at gunpoint have increased in Karachi, a city notorious for street crimes and robberies. Apart from the latest robberies, police records show armed men stole 50 goats and 20 cows from different locations in the city in recent weeks.
“Armed men barged into our farm in the early hours of yesterday (Tuesday) and took away 85 animals,” Faizan Bari, the owner of one of the two cattle farms from which 96 animals were stolen, told Arab News.
Bari said the robbers remained at his cattle market—located at Karachi's Dhabejee area near the national highway—for several hours before leaving at 8:00 a.m.
The robberies take place as Pakistan reels from an economic crisis that has seen inflation surge to unprecedented levels as the government hikes fuel and food prices to secure a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“We are devastated, as on the one hand, we are running after the police to get our case registered and catch the criminals, on the other hand, we are struggling to arrange animals for our customers,” Bari said, adding that cows, goats, and sheep were stolen from the farm.
.In a separate incident on Sunday night, armed men stole 11 animals from a cattle farm owned by a man named Shehroz Ilyas. The animals were worth over Rs10 million ($34,873).
“They restrained our guard, took his weapon, and managed to steal 11 animals,” Ilyas told Arab News, adding that the incidents exposed the incompetence of law enforcement agencies in curbing crimes.
According to complaints filed in different police stations seen by Arab News, four goats were snatched from the RCD ground in Saudabad, four goats were stolen from a home in Korangi, and three cows were stolen from Sector 2 of the North Nazimabad area in Karachi.
One cow was taken away from a rickshaw stand in North Karachi, one bull was stolen from Baldia Town, and nine cows were stolen from Korangi's Cattle Colony.
Additionally, 40 goats were stolen from North Karachi's Sector 7, and two goats were stolen after thieves broke through a shop's shutter in the Azizabad area. A cow worth Rs300,000 ($1,046) was stolen from an apartment in the city's Frere area.
Furthermore, 10 more animals were forcibly taken away from different parts of Karachi’s Orangi Town.
Last month, a security company said it received an overwhelming response when it launched a “package” for the security of sacrificial animals owing to rising cases of animal theft.
Al-Aman Security Company introduced a “specialized security scheme” tailored for the festival, offering bouncers and security guards to accompany individuals to the market and protect their animals until Eid.
A spokesperson of the Karachi police declined to comment on the rising incidents involving the snatching of sacrificial animals.
