Ban on animals import sends prices soaring

JALALABAD (PAN and the custom duty at home.

During the three days of Eidul Adha, the Muslim festival beginning from November 6, well-off Muslims slaughter animals in commemoration of the supreme sacrifice by Hazrat Ibrahim (AS).

Every year, millions of sheep, goats, camels and other animals are sacrificed on the occasion of Eidul Adha to remember Hazrat Ibrahim’s submission in being willing to sacrifice his son Hazrat Ismail (AS) at the command of Allah.

When the prophet was about to plunge the knife into the body of his son, Allah asked him not to harm Ismail. Instead, Allah provided an animal as a substitute sacrifice.

“I have paid the customs duty on sacrificial animals never before during my 15-year business,” said Rokhan, a resident of the Khosh Gunbad area of the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

Pakistan had clamped a ban on the export of animals through the Torkham border to Afghanistan, he added. As a result, cattle merchants use smuggling routes in Khost and Miranshah.

Rokhan said they paid 20,000 Pakistan rupees in transportation cost and custom duty on importing a buffalo from Pakistan. The animal’s price in local market was 50,000 to 120,000 rupees against last year’s rate of 30,000 to 90,000 rupees.

Another trader from Ghanikhel district, Qand Agha, said the Kabul municipality charged them 300 afghanis per animal at Pul-i-Charkhi. The Pakistani government also charged a vehicle carrying animals 20,000 rupees in custom duty, he concluded.

mas/ma/mud