PESHAWAR, Nov 3: The district administration has banned setting camps for collecting hides of sacrificial animals and dumping the same in the city during Eidul Azha owing to security reasons.

District Coordination Officer Siraj Ahmed Khan told Dawn that administration imposed Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code to forbid dumping of animal hides in the city.

“The dumping of animal hides would be allowed at specified open spaces along the Ring Road, outside Peshawar city,” Mr Khan said, adding that the measure had been necessitated owing to security considerations. Traditionally, Cinema Road was the main centre where hides of sacrificial animals were sold and purchased on every Eid. The area also receives a large number of visitors because of cinema houses, screening new Pashto films on Eid.

The fresh restrictions on dumping of animal hides anywhere in the city, said the DCO, would apply across the board.

While the administrative measure would partially control the nuisance of fowl smell caused by the piled up animal hides, it has shifted the Eid-specific animal hides' business from the traditional market to the city's outskirts, creating business and employment opportunities for many, according to business circles.

Sher Dil, a commission agent dealing in animal hides, said that Cinema Road's godowns did not operate during the last two years because of the restrictions on transporting hides from other areas to inside Peshawar. As a result, many sales points had been set up at Kohat Road, he added.— Bureau Report