Look what you eat: Two men arrested for selling donkey meat

Butcher tried to hush up the matter then claimed a hotel had placed an order for donkey meat.

FAISALABAD:

Dijkot police on Wednesday arrested two butchers for selling donkey meat in village 269-RB.

A spokesperson for police said they had received a call that Ashfaq Ahmad and Muhammad Ramazan were selling donkey meat. He said a police team headed by the Dijkot station house officer (SHO) raided the shop, arrested the butchers and seized the donkey meat.

Karim Bukhsh, a villager, told the media that Allah Rakha, a resident of village 269-RB, had gone to the shop to buy meat early on Wednesday. “He found Ahmad and Ramazan quickly cutting up the meat into pieces without catering to the customers.”

Asked why they were in a hurry, the butchers told Rakha that they were preparing the meat to deliver it to a hotel.

“Meanwhile, a son of one of the butchers removed a piece of cloth from the meat and Allah Rakha saw a donkey’s hide lying there,” Bukhsh said.

The butchers failed to give a convincing response when Rakha asked them why they had a donkey’s hide in the shop.

“He raised alarm, attracting the attention of some passers-by and villagers,” Bukhsh said, quoting Rakha.

He said Ahmad and Ramazan first tried to hush up the matter by threatening the people. However, once they sensed people’s anger, they started pleading with them for forgiveness, Bukhsh said.

The villagers first beat the two butchers and then called police. The Dijkot station house officer said they had arrested the two men and seized the meat.

Ramazan, in the police custody, told journalists that some hotels in the area had placed an order for donkey meat.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2014.