The ‘dead meat’ treatment

SIALKOT: Butchers in flood-hit areas are selling meat from animals that were killed in the floods to homeless and hungry people in relief camps, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Locals in several tehsils complained that butchers have been getting their wares from carrion instead of freshly-slaughtered animals. “We know the meat is ruined but food is scarce and people are dying from hunger everywhere around us,” said Fayyaz Khalil, a Narowal resident. Sambrial deputy district officer (Revenue) Malik Abid Hussain Awan raided several butchers’ shops over the past week and arrested nine men  Sadiq, Nasir, Imran, Naeem Shehzad, Irfan, Rasheed and Shezad Ishaq  for selling meat from dead animals.

“They were selling beef and mutton. When we caught them they said that they had reduced the prices, as if that excused the fact that they were selling bad meat to people desperate enough to buy it,” said Awan. Police have registered separate cases against the men.

“People are already sick with stomach-related diseases and others are starving to death. We cannot even trust the food we are being given to keep us alive,” said Samina Bibi, a Pasrur resident.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2010.