LAHORE, Aug 31: The Allama Iqbal Town Municipal Administration shifted the Kot Kamboh Bakar Mandi (goat market) and the slaughterhouse to the newly-established market and a modern slaughterhouse at Shahpur Kanjran on Multan Road near Chuhng in a day-long operation on Friday.

Led by the tehsil municipal officer, a large number of TMA officials along with the police reached the Kot Kamboh market early in the morning and started loading goats on trucks.

They uprooted sheds of goats and suspended the animals’ slaughter at the old slaughterhouse near Babu Sabu, Niazi Adda.

Officials shifted hundreds of goats and heavy material of sheds and other articles of the old slaughterhouse to the new place.

They advised goats’ owners, brokers, commission agents and butchers to start their routine business at the new cattle market and the slaughterhouse from Saturday (today).

“Since the beef slaughterhouse at Kot Kamboh has already been shifted to a new place (Shahpur Kanjran), the task to shift the existing mutton slaughterhouse and the cattle market has also been accomplished successfully,” TMO Muhammad Saleem told Dawn.

He said shifting of the cattle sale/purchase and slaughtering business to the new place would not only help the people get hygienic meat through a newly-established state-of-the-art slaughterhouse, but also help the government remove traffic congestion around various bus terminals near Kot Kamboh.

“It will also help us in resolving the environment issue prevailing in various residential colonies near Kot Kamboh,” the TMO said.

He said the old mutton and beef slaughterhouse would be used as meat sale points in future.

Meanwhile, the butchers’ community has criticised the CDGL and the TMA for shifting the slaughterhouse and the cattle market to Shahpur.

“The new place is quite far from the city and it will be very difficult for us to go there to slaughter animals and then distribute the meat to various sale points in the city,” butcher Shahzad said.

Jamiatul Quresh Punjab President Sheikh Anwar Saeed said the government should not shift the slaughterhouse to a new place because the experience of the newly-established slaughterhouse at Shahpur had already failed.

“The government should have shifted only the cattle market to Shahpur rather than the existing slaughterhouses as it will affect the business of many butchers working at Kot Kamboh for decades.” He demanded of the chief minister to take action against those involved in closing down slaughterhouses and the cattle market in Kot Kamboh.