In the first week of February, the capital police busted a gang allegedly involved in selling dead animal meat.

On so many occasions in the past, the police took action against such unscrupulous people but the illegal business continued unabated on the suburbs of the capital.

The reason for the unchecked illegal business is that the police do not lay hands on the suppliers of the dead animal meat.

Eating dead animal meat is prohibited (Haram) in Islam.

The police inaction against the suppliers of the meat encourages the middlemen to operate the illegal business. They not only get suppliers but also buyers – butchers – as well.

The police do take the middleman into custody but the arrest only changes face.

The gang was busted after police were tipped that a man, Wazir Gul, had brought meat of dead animals and calf from Punjab. The police raided the house located in Sara-i-Kharboza where blood was splashed on the wall of the courtyard, the police said. Besides, six dead and 30 alive calves were also found there.

They were impounded and the man was arrested. Later, he was shifted to a police station.

During interrogation, Gul revealed that he had bought the dead and alive calves from a man in Okara.

The animals were kept at a rented house in Sara-i-Kharboza where Gul ran a slaughterhouse along with another person.

They chopped the meat into pieces and sold them to butchers in Peshawar.

Further interrogation showed that the slaughterhouse was illegal and operating without any NOC or licence from the authorities concerned.

Police said neither the ‘butcher’ nor the owner of the house had informed the area police about their rent agreement.

Under the CrPC section 144, imposed in the city, tenant and owner should inform the area police about the agreement between them.

A case was registered with the Tarnol police under the Pure Food Ordinance 1960 and PPC 109 and 273 against five persons, Gul, his accomplice Baba Ishaq, the supplier and two butchers of Peshawar to whom the meat was sold. A case was also registered against the owner of the house.

A senior police officer, when contacted, said for the first time the police booked all those who were running the whole chain of illegal meat business.

He admitted that earlier the police used to arrest only the middlemen whereas the suppliers got off scot-free.

In the FIR, the man who arranged such animals and the butchers were also nominated and the investigators were making efforts to arrest them, he added.

In reply to a question, the officer said the investigations showed the meat was sold only in Peshawar and not in Islamabad, Rawalpindi or adjacent areas. However, investigations in this regard were still in progress.

In a similar case on December 5, 2011, a joint team of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) health directorate and the police arrested four middlemen who were bringing 40kg dead animal meat to Islamabad. However, the suppliers could not be traced.

During the interrogation, they revealed that they were bringing the dead meat from the central Punjab.

The arrested persons were produced in the court of duty judge Usman Ali Awan from where they were shifted to the Adiala Jail but no further investigations were carried out.

The police said the accused were the native of Sargodha and operating a meat shop at G-11 service road. Quoting the accused, the police said they searched for the dead animals in Sargodha and its adjacent villages and brought it to Islamabad for sale.

Similarly, on October 5, 2013, 400kg rotten meat was recovered from a private store established in a house at Jhungi Syedan during a joint raid of Tarnol police and the district health department.

The raid also resulted in the arrest of nine people – the owner and his eight employees. During the interrogation, they said they brought the meat from Sargodha and Jhang in a Shahzor truck and as the vehicle had no chiller the meat started emitting foul small.

After reaching the store, the meat was kept in the freezer for days to remove the stink, they told police, adding they had been providing such meat to hotels and restaurants for the last two years.

The police believed that the suspects were involved in selling dead animal meat, which was corroborated by Dr Ashraf of the district health department who examined the meat.

Later, the arrested people were produced in the court of an assistant commissioner who released them on bail. The investigations in the case could not reach a conclusion.

Published in Dawn February 16th , 2015

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