- 356 nabbed for violating hides collection code, say Rangers
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) shelved its hides’ collection operation on the second day of Eidul Azha (Saturday) over what it called excessive use of force against the party by the ‘authorities’.
Speaking at a press conference at Tariq ground, top MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar said their party’s charity wing Khidmat-e-Khalq Foundation (KKF) was being stopped from collecting hides of sacrificial animals.
“We are halting this operation with immediate effect,” announced Sattar, claiming that about 60,000 hides had been snatched from the KKF.
He said hide collectors from the KKF and donors were being threatened by the authorities despite the fact that the KKF was not involved in snatching hides forcibly.
“Those stopping the KKF from collecting hides are breaking the laws…We want to resolve this issue through dialogue,” he added.
According to Sattar, over 100 vehicles full of sacrificial hides were seized by the authorities despite the fact that all drivers had the commissioner’s approval letters. He said that contractors’ trucks were still clamped in different police stations of the metropolis.
Including the Sindh Rangers, law enforcement agencies, on the other hand, arrested dozens of people involved in ‘snatching of hides of sacrificial animals’ from different areas of the city during Eid days.
The Sindh government had announced a strict code of conduct for collection of hides of sacrificial animals. Only registered organisations were allowed to collect hides according to this code of conduct.
RANGERS CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL HIDE COLLECTORS:
Meanwhile, the Sindh Rangers on Sunday said action had been taken against those who violated the government’s code of conduct on hides’ collection during the three days of Eidul Azha, with 356 people arrested and over 18,000 animal hides confiscated.
Of those arrested, 288 individuals were handed over to the police, 32 were released, while 36 individuals are being interrogated for involvement in serious crimes, a press release issued by the Rangers said.
“Organisations found in violation of the code of conduct, and from whom hides were confiscated, include: Mutahidda Qaumi Movement, Jamaat-e-Islami, Sunni Tehreek, Jamaatud Dawa, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat and Dawat-e-Islami,” stated the release.
In order to avoid competition of collecting hides of sacrificial animals during the Eid days among different political and religious parties, social organisations, welfare institutions and religious seminaries in the province, the Sindh government had notified a code of conduct.
The code, issued by the home department, allowed only those registered political and religious parties, social and welfare institutions and seminaries to collect hides that had prior permission in writing from the commissioner or deputy commissioners concerned.
But even these institutions were not allowed to set up any camp and had to sign the code of conduct to strictly follow all the rules mentioned in it.