RAWALPINDI, Feb 1: About 90 per cent of the local cattle- owners on Friday shifted their buffaloes outside the city while the remaining 10 per cent were on their way out, the deadline set by the court for the purpose having passed on Thursday night, a spokesman for the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) said.

Despite the cattle-owners’ willingness to leave the city, the police arrested a number of them, a representative of the Dairy Owners’ Association told Dawn.

Six buffaloes died while being transported to places outside the city. Neither the TMA nor the district government had made arrangements for the exodus.

While the TMA claimed that it had fixed two places as permanent settlements for buffalo-owners, the latter said no such arrangement had been made.

According to the TMA, two sites, Baga Sheikhan (near Rawat) and Tarnol had been provided to cattle-owners to settle.

The Dairy Owners’ Association regretted that the TMA, which should have facilitated the transportation of animals as well as their settlement outside the city, had just left them on their own.

“Are we not citizens of this country. We are being treated as untouchables just because we keep buffalo to make a living and supply milk to residents of the city,” Haji Ikramullah, a representative of the Dairy Owners’ Association said.

The union said the only thing the TMA had done was to establish two pens to impound the buffaloes that were not being shifted outside the city.

About 300 families will be affected because of the apathetic attitude of local government officials.

There were about 20,000 buffaloes inside the city that used to produce hundreds of tonnes of garbage every day and cause traffic jams whenever brought out on the roads.