MULTAN, Feb 20: Sacrificial animals are being shifted to Lahore and Karachi as their sale in Multan failed to benefit traders.

Dawn learnt on Wednesday the traders from Dera Ghazi Khan, Leiah, Duniapur, Muzaffargarh and Mailsi brought around 50,000 animals to Multan but failed to attract customers.

High rates have kept a majority of visitors away while the traders have moved to Lahore and Karachi to get better profit.

The government had set up 10 spots for selling animals including the Bakar Mandi, Manzoorabad Chowk, Waliatabad, Mumtazabad, Dera Adda, Chungi Nos 8 and 9, Hazoori Bagh Road and Shah Shams Road.

A trader, who every year comes to Multan from Duniyapur, said traders prefered to sale their animals near Chungi 9 as people living in its suburbs were rich and could purchase animals at high prices.

Trader Mushtaq Husain said Lyallpuri breed of goats was the one most demanded by the people than Rabni and Taidi. As some people liked to purchase good looking goats, he said they demanded goats which were brought from Chowk Munda as having beautiful dots on their hides.

Bakar Mandi contractor Naeem Dogar claimed there was a considerable reduction in the sale of animals in the light of low purchasing capacity of the people. However, he said, some people purchased animals at higher rates to keep tradition.

He said the Multan Corporation received Rs500,000 from contractors as fee to cleanse the markets of the dung and the garbage after Eid. But, the corporation did not carry out the operation even after taking the amount last year.

MMC chief health officer Dr Abdul Salaam told this correspondent that now the corporation would set emergency centres in order to remove the dung and garbage.

These centres would be set up at Daulat Gate, Qila Khana Qasim Bagh, Chungi No 9 and General Bus Stand, he concluded.

Bangalwala clash: A strict action will be taken, following a probe, against those responsible for the police-public clash in Bangalwala.

This was stated by district Nazim Shah Mehmood Qureshi while talking to villagers in Bangalwala here on Wednesday.

The Nazim said he would listen to the police version on Thursday.

Some of the victims told the Nazim that they were neither proclaimed offenders nor any case was registered against them.

They said some dacoits in uniform had been active in the area for the last couple of months. On Monday, they held hostage four police officials when they trespassed on the house of one Ishfaq, considering them dacoits.

They demanded the Nazim to ensure justice to them.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-i-Islami amir Khwaja Obaidur Rahman has urged the High Court to conduct an inquiry into the police-public clash in Bangalwala which left 38 injured.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, he termed the police action sheer brutality, saying they tortured several women. The villagers, in fact, caught dacoits in guise of policemen, he claimed, adding the policemen took away jewellery.

He called for a punitive action against the police to discourage highhandedness in future.

Meanwhile, Khidmat-i-Insaniat Party president Saleem Leghari also demanded a judicial probe into the incident.

He corroborated that a heavy police contingent ransacked some of the houses to get their colleagues released.

Area Nazim Malik Arshad said the injured women were not issued medico-legal certificates even after 36 hours of the incident.—Nouman