(Bad) quality food: Two butchers arrested for selling donkey meat

Butchers says meat of female donkeys fetched a higher price.

MULTAN:

Bahawalnagar police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested two butchers for preparing donkey meat to be sold on New Year’s Eve.

A Saddar police spokesman said, Ghulam Mustafa, a farmer told them that his donkey had died of an illness on Tuesday night.

He said he had left the body near a dumpster. He told police that he heard some men talking near the dumpster when he was going to the fields early on Wednesday morning.

Mustafa said on closer inspection, he realised that three men were cutting up the cadaver and scratching off the hide. He said he ran back to his village and called police.

The spokesman said a team had been dispatched to arrest the men.

They said when the men saw police approaching, they tried to flee. He said two of them had been arrested but one of them managed to escape.

He said the men, identified as Abu Bakar Haris and Omar Khalid.

They said Usman Aslam managed to flee.

Police said the men were butchers from Bahawalnagar.

He said during interrogation, they had confessed that they had been selling donkey meat for five years.

They claimed that most people could not tell the difference between donkey meat and cow meat if it was properly cut up. They further said several customers had praised them for selling good quality meat.

They told police that the meat sold for Rs800 to Rs1,000 per kg.

They said meat of female donkeys fetched a higher price.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2015.