ISLAMABAD: Against all the forebodings, it turned out to be a real ‘Happy Eid’ in Islamabad this year. The gusto with which the citizens celebrated the festival belied its image of a sleepy, lifeless city in the eyes of outsiders.

Soon after the Eid prayers, offered in an air made heavy by the security plans for the occasion, people poured out to visit relatives and picnic places, restaurants, bakeries and shopping malls. Prayer gatherings, big and small, and the subsequent merry-making ended without any incident.

Families thronged such picnic spots as Daman-i-Koh, Shakarparian and the Lakeview Park by the bank of Rawal Dam, creating traffic jams on Murree Road and Club Road on the way.

Perhaps the only public place barred to the holiday crowds was the old part of the Rawal Dam, that too for safety reasons to prevent drowning incidents.

“After finding that section of the dam closed, I decided to take my family to the Lakeview Park,” citizen Sohail Sheikh told Dawn. “But I met such big rush in that direction that I turned to a shopping mall on the Jinnah Avenue. Alas, it looked even bigger rush for the place. So we all returned to our home-sweet-home.”

There was no let up in the enthusiasm on the second day of Eid. Citizen Maqbool Ahmed said that he headed for the Daman-i-Koh on the second day but found himself caught at the tail end of a traffic jam near the Murghzar zoo in the foothill of Margallah.

“I turned back and spent half an hour in Rose and Jasmine Garden. Then I headed for Shakarparian, but another daunting traffic jam made me turn home,” he said.

Such disappointments were not confined to choice places. Choice eateries were as much out of reach, or stock.

Mohammad Bilal went to a renowned bakery in G-9 to buy Pizza at 10pm but the staff told him that they had stopped taking orders because they could not fulfill them. “They had orders beyond their expectations and capacity,” he said.

There was another surprise for the citizens. Unlike in the past, public transport was available during this Eid - of course for an extra fare in the form of Eidi.

Rawalpindi resident Khalid Mehmood said that transporters plying on Route 1, from Sadar to Aabpara, charged Rs50 instead of the normal Rs40. Rs10 was the extra that transporters charged on other routes too.

“They said it was their Eidi. On Route 21, from Rawalpindi Courts complex to Zero Point in Islamabad, the transporters charged Rs40 instead of Rs27. From Zero Point to Aabpara the normal fare is Rs15 during Eid holidays it cost Rs20,” he said.

However, all that did not prevent the Islamabad police from claiming that they controlled the flow of traffic well and provided foolproof security to the residents of federal capital.

Inspector General Police Aftab Ahmed Cheema said in an official statement that his officers remained away from their family members on the Eid days to provide security to the citizens of Islamabad.

About 4,500 policemen performed security duties and teams led by Station House Officers ensured continuous patrolling in various sectors and areas to keep criminal elements away.

While police were deployed at entry and exit points of Islamabad and guarded recreation places, the bomb disposal squad checked various areas.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014