ISLAMABAD: With few days left in the biggest Islamic festival of Eidul Azha, the sale of decorative items for sacrificial animals is witnessing rise in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Traditional decorative items are brought from cities like Multan, Sahiwal, Kasur and interior Sindh to different cities and are available at stalls in and around cattle markets of twin cities. “I have been selling animal jewelry for the past many years,” said Asim Khan, a vendor.
“I usually sit beside different cattle markets where most of the people visit and keep on moving from one place to another to grab more and more customers,” he said. “Youngsters especially children are more inclined to visit stalls of the decorative items as they wanted to decorate their sacrificial animals with the latest garland,” he said.
Suleman Ahmad, a 15-year-old buyer at a decorative items stall in the cattle market of Rawalpindi, said that they were here to buy colourful garlands, crown and payals for their cow but the prices were high that they even can’t buy all the desired items.
“Following the Sunnat-i-Ibrahimi, we want to decorate our sacrificial animal at the best but high prices of such items make it difficult for us to fulfill our wishes,” he said. Noor Ameen, a 65-year-old buyer said, “I have spent already my maximum savings in buying my cattle as the prices were much higher as compared to the last years.”
Now, “my grandchildren are demanding to buy decorative items but sellers are not ready to give any discount. Spending so much money on such things which will be useless after the ritual of sacrifice is unreasonable,” he said. The sellers use to increase prices of such items considering the rising demand on their own and they know the fact that parents were usually forced by their children for such useless expense, he said.
