“This is kheera (young),” a man escorted by three friends comments while opening the jaws and touching the teeth of a dark grey sheep with a fat and tucked tail in a market of sacrificial animals.
The sacrificial animal is surrounded by over two dozen others of its breed at a roadside spot in the three kilometres long market set up near Saggian Bridge.
The sheep’s breed is unique and is a rare sight in Punjab.
A bearded man with a traditional embroidered Pakhtun cap speaks in a jumbled accent a few disjointed words of Punjabi, Pashto and Pothohari dialect to contradict the prospective customer. “The sheep is donda (having two pairs of grown teeth),” he insists.
The man puts up a contemptuous look at the trader, exchanges smirks with his companions and moves towards the next animal.
Toor Khan has travelled all along from Dera Ismail Khan, fifth largest city of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa some 500 kilometres away from Lahore, with 100 of sheep of the unique breed that have swollen wool and fat, tucked tails. "This breed is called Balkhi. These are sheep of Turkish origin,” he told The Express Tribune. It is usually found in Afghanistan and some districts of K-P.
Toor said he had been visiting the sacrificial animals market of Lahore for seven years. His rears a herd of Balkhi sheep throughout the year to sell them in 10 days ahead of Eidul Azha.
The money earned from the sale is the income of the family for the whole year.
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“From a part of the money, we will buy a herd of lambs and rear them throughout the year to bring them to this market next year,” he said.
Toor says that it was a very tedious and complicated process to raise the sheep, which demanded much patience and hard work. “We have to feed them special food when they are young. They are fed grains, usually wheat or corn,” he says, adding that it was expensive as compared to his financial resources.
“Balkhi is sensitive to heat," he shares. He had to prepare a handmade improvised shed to keep them. This is a primitive method of providing controlled temperature to the animals. Mud, left over parts of rice or wheat plants and wood is used to build the sheds.
In modern sheds, air conditioners, fans and heaters are used for controlling the temperature.
Juma Khan, a member of the same family from Rawalpindi district, explained risks involved in the business. "We have to take utmost care that these sheep do not fall sick due to heat. We cannot afford the death of even a single animal,” he said.
He said the price only one or two animals was the profit. “The rest of the money is spent in our subsistence and care of the animals."
He said he would use the profit to buy a higher number of lambs for next year. Juma Khan also fears that his sheep may get lost or stolen.
"The sheep look similar to each other. We have to stay vigilant throughout the year, whether day or night, rain or storm, heat or cold, so that no one steals our animals."
His sheep have blue triangular marks. “I have put these mark to identify my sheep so that they do not get mixed up with other sheep by mistake or after being stolen,” the trader and herder said.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2021.
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