KARACHI, Feb 4: Eid-ul-Azha was celebrated with religious fervour in the metropolis and thousands of people sacrificed animals to mark the sacrifice offered by Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S).

The city remained peaceful during the Eid days except some sporadic incidents, which were reported about snatching of sacrificial hides, the police said.

Like elsewhere in the country, eid prayers were offered in mosques, playgrounds and parks in the city.

DIG police (Operations) Tariq Jamil said, "The overall situation of law and order remained under control, as we have not allowed people to pitch tents along roads and streets and install banners to seek hides and skins of sacrificial animals."

He said the police, however, allowed the collection to those who were permitted by the city government. He admitted that there was tension in some areas of New Karachi, Garden, and Liaquatabad over the collection. But, with the intervention of police the matters were solved, he added.

He said, "No banned religious organization collected skins of the sacrificial animals in the city.

"The positive development is that the people informed police about the snatching of skins and police reached the spot to solve the matter," Mr Jamil said and added that no arrest was made in that respect.

According to the statement issued by the Sunni Tehrik on Wednesday, the party claimed that some activists of a political party attacked their unit office in Sector 5-E, New Karachi and snatched 50 hides of sacrificial animals, three cellular phones and Rs10,000 at gunpoint. As the workers of Sunni Tehrik resisted, they were fired upon which resulted in bullet wounds to Mohammad Shahid and Irfan. It claimed that the police were reluctant to register the case.

Besides, reports from Lines Area, Jacoblines, Landhi, some parts of Malir, North Karachi, New Karachi and other localities were also received that the workers of a political party forcibly took away hides and skins of sacrificial animals from people. A resident of Lines Area said, "We have been forced to donate the skin of our sacrificial animal to a specific party. As an individual, we could not do anything but to give the skins to them," he added.

According to a spokesman for Edhi Foundation on Wednesday, the foundation received 20 per cent less hides of sacrificial animals as compared to the previous year. He observed that there was also a 40 per cent reduction in participating of people to slaughter animals. He said that the city had been inclined towards short-sightedness and sectarian split, which was alarming in the years to come.

Apart from Karachi and Hyderabad, he said the foundation received 20 to 25 per cent more number of skins from other parts of the country. He claimed that several people wanted to donate skins to the Edhi Foundation, but, they had been forcibly deprived of skins of sacrificial animals by some people.

Shortage of sacrificial animals in markets was also stated to be one of the reasons behind the less number of slaughters in the metropolis.

Besides, the trend of participating in collective sacrifice of animals has also been increased. People preferred to give a chunk of their part to welfare organizations for purchase and slaughter of animals. They just went to pay their share and collect the meat in order to avoid the hassle of buying animals; running after butchers and fearing the animals' skins being snatched.

"I took part in a collective sacrifice in my area's mosque, as its management did all from purchasing to disposing and I remained hassle-free," said a resident of F.B. Area.

Several welfare organizations, trusts and NGOs played a significant role in the promotion of collective sacrifice of animals. The trusts and organizations in the business get animals' skins as donation.

Rizwan Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said the trend of collective sacrifice had increased in the recent past. "Residents especially of the posh localities of Defence, Clifton and Bahadurabad opted for hassle-free collective sacrifice," he remarked.