Cattle markets: 20 arrested for illegal sale; 4 for fraud, theft

Vendors say traffic police allow them to sell animals anywhere they want ‘after charging them Rs500 to Rs1,000’.

GUJRANWALA/ MULTAN:

Twenty cattle traders were arrested on Friday for selling sacrificial animals outside the designated cattle markets established by the Gujranwala city government.

Police also arrested two men, who pretended to be town officials, for extorting money from vendors in the name of government tax. Cases have been registered against them.

The district government has banned the sale of sacrificial animals outside the designated sale points under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Despite the ban, animal vendors have set up illegal markets at eight points in the city.

On directions of District Coordination Officer Muhammad Amin Chaudhry , a team comprising some Livestock Department officials and Special Magistrate Dr Shaukat Mehmood Gondal launched a crackdown against animal vendors who have set up illegal sale points on roadsides.

The team conducted raids on the Sheikhupura Road, Khayali Shahpur, Fatomund and Sialkot Road and arrested 20 vendors.

Abdus Sattar, who was arrested for selling goats on Sialkot Road, said that traffic police had taken Rs500 to Rs1,000 from each of the vendors before “allowing them” to sell their animal on the roadside.

He said vendors who had travelled from other cities for a day could not get a place inside the cattle markets because of overcrowding. He said traffic police officials had also stopped trucks, carrying cattle, from entering the city. They let them enter the city after taking bribes, Sattar told the police.

Addition Inspector General of Police (Traffic) Syed Qalbe Abbas said that traffic wardens have been instructed not to fine any driver between October 20 and the third day of Eid.

He said an inquiry has been ordered against those involved in accepting bribes and fining citizens.

Elsewhere, Shahpur Town TMO Chaudhry Arshad Mehmood and his team raided cattle markets in Army Ground near Nigar Phatak Mor and arrested two men for charging tax from vendors.

A vendor later told police that the two men had introduced themselves as town officials and were asking vendors who had a lot of cattle to pay tax. One of the two men was identified as Muhammad Tanveer, a resident of Kangniwala.

In Multan, citizens handed over two men to the police, saying that they had tried to steal sacrificial animals in Jalilabad and Saddar areas.  They said the vendors had noticed the men when they tried to untie the goats. The vendors raised the alarm and the men were caught.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2012.