RAWALPINDI, Oct 30: The district government officials on Thursday morning raided municipal slaughterhouse following complaints of supply of unhygienic meat and confiscated several slaughtered animals.

As many as 12 employees of the slaughterhouse and butchers were arrested during the raid, while another 18 fled from the scene.

District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani, who led the raid, speaking to this reporter on the occasion, said the management of the slaughter house had been time and again warned to refrain from malpractice, but to no avail. “Therefore, we were left with no other option but to deal with them strictly,” he said.

A slaughterhouse guard was caught affixing “hygienic meat” stamps on the slaughtered animals in place of the veterinary doctor, who is required to certify all slaughtered animals as hygienic and, hence, fit for consumption.

The guard was taken into custody and the stamp in his possession was confiscated.

The slaughtered animals were inspected by the raiding team, which found out that the animals were very young, frail and sick. “Such meat is not nutritious,” a member of the raiding party said and added that the minimum standard for a goat or a sheep was 7kg.

Slaughter of a large number of other weak and frail animals at the slaughter house was stopped.

Mr Kiani, after the raid, appealed to the citizens to lend a helping hand in the district government’s drive against profiteering and sale of unhygienic edibles. “All traders indulging in such unscrupulous practices should be boycotted,” he added.

Immediately after the raid, several leaders of the butchers union, Jamiat-al Quresh, accompanied by a local member of the national assembly, approached the police to get the arrested men released. However, the police refused to oblige them.

The MNA was reportedly snubbed by one of the officials, who told him to protect the citizen’s rights rather than working for the interests of profiteers and those involved in malpractice.

Later, the Nazim, along with his team, visited several butcher shops in the city and took action against another 16 people for selling overpriced meat.

Bakhtawar Mian adds: Union leaders of the local butchers’ association have warned of a country-wide shutter-down if their arrested colleagues were not released within three days.

The district administration in a raid on a slaughter house arrested six butchers for selling substandard meat on prices higher than those fixed by the local administration. About 400 small animals were also taken away the raiding team on the directives of district Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani.

The Jamiatul Quresh Meat Welfare Association in a press conference at the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club termed the arrests illegal and demanded of the administration to release their fellow butchers. They also demanded that the animals taken away from their slaughter house be returned.

President of the association Khurshid Ahmad Qureshi alleged that the government itself was facilitating smuggling of big animals out of the country, creating a shortage of animals and compelling the butchers to slaughter small animals.

The raided slaughter house, they added, was the property of the tehsil municipal administration and the district government had no powers to conduct the raid.