By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: Police in this sprawling port city are searching for three or four men who stole 25 goats valued at more than Rs1.9 million from an empty plot in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighborhood, the latest in a string of thefts targeting animals bought for sacrifice during Eid al-Adha.
The animals were being held for sale at the festival, which draws millions of Muslims across Pakistan and elsewhere to purchase livestock for ritual slaughter. Malir Cantt Station House Officer Agha Abdul Rasheed said the owner, Muhammad Osama Khan, had purchased the goats and arranged for them to be kept at the plot in Block 8-A. Khan had hired a watchman to guard the herd.
The theft occurred late Saturday night — or, by some accounts, between Friday and Saturday night — when the suspects arrived at the site. According to the police officer, the men were driving a Suzuki van. The watchman, who was awake at the time, told investigators that the intruders covered his face with a cloth before loading the goats and driving away with all 25 animals. Other police accounts described the suspects arriving on motorcycles and in a car before transferring the goats into a mini truck.
Officers have obtained CCTV footage from the area that shows the theft in progress, Rasheed said. The video has circulated locally, offering what investigators hope will be useful leads. A formal complaint has been registered at the Malir Cantt police station. Rasheed said Khan initially appeared reluctant to pursue a first information report, but authorities urged him to file one so that legal proceedings could begin. Police said they are using the footage and other video evidence to trace the suspects and are continuing their investigation.
The episode is not the first of its kind here. In 2024, four armed men on two motorcycles hijacked a truck carrying a consignment of sacrificial goats in the same Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighbourhood. The driver, Abdul Manan, had stopped near Kamran Chowrangi to ask for directions when the suspects held him at gunpoint, took his cash and cellphone, and drove off with the vehicle and its cargo. He valued the stolen animals at about Rs1.5 million.
Theft of sacrificial goats and other livestock has become a recurring problem in Karachi and other Pakistani cities in the weeks leading up to Eid al-Adha, as demand — and prices — rise sharply. Police officials have noted an uptick in such cases in recent years, often involving organised groups that target animals being held in open plots or temporary pens in residential areas.
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