Sacrificial animals: sky-high prices slacken Eid celebrations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

With just a day left before Eid-ul-Azha, sky-high prices reduced the zeal of Peshawarities, visiting the cattle market as window shoppers' rather serious buyers. The prices of bull at the Peshawar Ring Road market ranged at Rs 100,000 to Rs 150,000 with the average going rates in Rs 80,000 to Rs 90,000. While, the prices of goats and lambs varied from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000, depending on the size and breed of the animals, according to survey conducted by Business Recorder here on Monday.
Buyers flocked in makeshift cattle markets established at ring road Peshawar, and other parts of the province, as a huge stock of sacrificial animals arrived in Peshawar. The high prices of animals and low-purchasing powers of people have made sacrifice merely a dream for many of salaried and middle class.
Livestock merchants said that business has boomed up with firstly approaching the Eid-ul-Azha. "We have brought animals to Peshawar where they are getting handsome prices than other parts of the country due to its location with FATA and Afghanistan. The main markets of the city where great rush on sheep and goats was observed was Chargano Chawak and Palosi, where people bringing animals from the rural parts of Peshawar and sold it on high prices to get some income.
A local trader said that the prices of cattle this year are very high as compared to the last year. An official of Livestock and Dairy Development KP said that sacrificial animals between Rs 70,000 to Rs 100,000 were being sacrificed only in KP, he informed. He said "we have no choice but to import cattle from Punjab province to ensure availability of sacrificial animals on reasonable rates to people of KP and discourage profiteering." Around 70 to 75 percent of cattle were brought from Punjab on eve of that occasion, he informed.