ISLAMABAD: Unidentified men stole 25 sacrificial goats worth about Rs1.9 million ($6,810) from a private owner in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi, police said on Monday, weeks before the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha.
Eid Al-Adha, one of Islam’s two major religious festivals, marks the culmination of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Muslims slaughter animals such as goats, sheep, cows, buffaloes and camels in remembrance of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God’s command, with meat distributed among relatives, friends and the poor.
The theft took place in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighborhood, where the animals had been kept in an empty parking lot ahead of the festival.
“A citizen named Usman Khan had kept 25 sacrificial goats worth approximately Rs1.9 million at a location in Pak Ideal Society, Gulistan-e-Jauhar,” Station House Officer (SHO) Malir Cantonment Agha Abdul Rasheed told Arab News.
“Around 4am on Saturday, unidentified men stole the goats.”
According to police and local media reports, three to four suspects arrived in a Suzuki van and overpowered a watchman guarding the animals.
The watchman told police he was awake at the time of the incident but the suspects tied a cloth over his face before forcibly taking away the goats, according to English-language newspaper Dawn.
Rasheed said the owner had not yet formally registered a police complaint but authorities had obtained CCTV footage from the area.
“Efforts are underway to arrest the thieves,” the police official said.
Keeping sacrificial animals at homes or in vacant plots and temporary enclosures in the weeks leading up to Eid Al-Adha is a common practice in Pakistan, where large cattle markets emerge annually in major cities.
Karachi’s sprawling Sohrab Goth cattle market, regarded as one of Asia’s largest, attracts traders and buyers from across the country each year ahead of the festival.
