Health scare: Man arrested for selling donkey meat

Police claim the accused was supplying to local butchers and vendors.

HARIPUR: Police claim to have arrested a meat seller on charges of selling donkey meat to butchers and restaurant owners in different parts of Haripur city.

Police said they seized four living donkeys, a skinned donkey and two hides from the accused. Assistant sub-inspector Shafiq told the media a local farmer spotted three men removing the hide of a dead donkey at the causeway of Mohallah Chungi No.1. Responding to the complaint, a police team raided the area and arrested Ghulam Shabir, a resident of Toba Tek Singh presently residing in a hut located near New Sabzi Mandi, Haripur. However, Shabir’s two accomplices, Nasir and Tanvir, managed to evade arrest.

The ASI said the donkey they found was being butchered so that its meat could be supplied to local meat vendors. The hides they recovered turned out to be of donkeys whose meat had already been sold in the market.

Police claimed the accused confessed he had been in the business for quite some time and had supplied donkey meat to local butchers to be sold to customers. The ASI, however, refused to share the names of the butchers and eateries the meat was supplied to.

An FIR has been registered against Ghulam Shabir and his relatives Nasir and Tanvir under sections 272, 273 and 429 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Shabir was also presented before the court of a judicial magistrate, Sardar Naveed, in front of whom Shabir denied the charges and said he was removing the donkey’s hide to make a dholak (drum). The magistrate then handed Shabir over to the police for a physical remand of five days.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.