KARACHI: Police have registered more than 70 FIRs against hundreds of suspects arrested for violating the code of conduct for Eidul Azha by ‘forcibly’ collecting hides of sacrificial animals, officials said on Monday.

The Rangers and police on Sunday claimed to have detained hundreds of people across the province. In Karachi, a majority of them were detained in Karachi’s west and central districts.

“Challans of many of the suspects were presented before the relevant courts under Section 188 [disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant] of the Pakistan Penal Code over violation of Section 144 [of the criminal procedure code],” said Karachi-West Zone DIG Feroze Shah.

Many others were being investigated for their alleged involvement in other crimes also, added the officer.

The senior police officer was not sure about the exact number of suspects whose challans were presented or the number of the suspects under investigation. However, police sources told Dawn that the police had registered over 70 FIRs across the metropolis. They added that over 270 suspects were under investigation in Karachi.

The Rangers on Sunday had claimed to have handed over 288 people to police across Sindh for further legal action while 36 others were under investigation as they were involved in ‘heinous crimes’.

The paramilitary force had stated that the held suspects belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Jamaatud Dawa, Jamaat-i-Islami and other parties.

JI rejects allegation

Rejecting the Rangers’ allegation that its workers were involved in hides snatching, the Karachi chapter of the Jamaat-i-Islami said on Monday that the party never collected hides forcibly.

Speaking at a press briefing here, Karachi JI chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said that the JI followed the code of conduct imposed by Rangers despite reservations on its certain clauses.

“Not even a single JI worker had collected any hide at gunpoint and no worker was engaged in such a nefarious practice in the past,” he claimed.

He said that overall the Rangers cooperated with the JI workers except one or two incidents in which the paramilitary force took volunteers into custody and seized the collected hides.

He made it clear that the allegations of forcible collection of hides would not be tolerated at any cost.

The JI leader said that a letter would be written to the Rangers director general to eliminate any prevailing confusion in this regard.

He said that at present no JI worker was in custody as there was no substantial proof against them.

‘Over 1.7m offal lifted during Eid days’

Over 1.7 million animals were sacrificed during the three days of Eidul Azha this year against last year’s 1.3 million, an increase of over 425,000 animals, says a KMC statement issued on Monday.

It says that the number of sacrificial animals was so huge that it even surpassed the KMC’s estimates which keeping in view last year’s number had dug trenches to bury 1.5 million offal, but these trenches were filled up by noon on the third day and the KMC had to dig more such trenches to accommodate 300,000 more offal.

The data shows that the number of animals sacrificed was higher on the second day of Eid. Giving a breakdown of the number of offal collected, the statement says 559,629 offal were collected by its staff on the first day; 699,064 offal were collected on the second day, and 466,741 offal were collected on the third day.

The largest number of animals was sacrificed in Karachi’s South district, where 448,834 animals were sacrificed; in East district 441,086 were sacrificed; in West district, 292,639; in Central district, 201,728; in Korangi district, 125,088; in Malir district, 119,983; in Karachi District Council, 75,206 and Surjani Project, 20,870.

Meanwhile, KMC administrator Sajjad Abbasi said that since this year more animals were sacrificed, the KMC staff would have to do more work to keep the city clean and stern action would be taken against officials who did not perform efficiently. He said action had been initiated against district municipal corporation central administrator Ayesha Abro, municipal commissioner Nawaz Domki and others for their failure to quickly lift and dispose of offal in Central district, says the statement.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2015

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