The cattle markets in the city witnessed buying spree Saturday, just two days ahead of the holy Eid-ul- Azha as the sellers showed flexibility of their asking prices.
A visit to some makeshift cattle markets revealed that the sufficient supply of sacrificial animals helped bringing down the prices at reasonable level compared to Friday's rates. Â
The trading of sacrificial animals before Eid-ul-Azha to be celebrated tomorrow (Monday) gained momentum. The prices of different sizes of bulls and goats were cheap than the previous day.
The traders expressed optimism that they would be able to sell their remaining cattle by today (Sunday). The 16 authorised makeshift markets in the city have sufficient number of cattle of different sizes and prices much to the relief of the buyers.
"I' m happy because I bought a medium sized bull at Tk 32,000," Md Abu Musa, a private service holder told the FF at Shahjahanpur cattle market on the day. Â
Many customers, however, complained that the traders were demanding higher prices for the cattle were last year, while many others said it was reasonable.
A medium-sized bull was sold between Tk 3200 and Tk 40,000 while big ones from Tk 50,000 to Tk 85,000 on the day.
Asiqur Rahman, a resident of Kamalapur area who bought a medium-sized bull at Tk 45,000 said the same bull cost him Tk 40,000 last year.
The supply of Indian cattle at Gabtali market is sufficient. It helps keep the prices of the local variety of animals at tolerable level.
"I brought 15 bulls of different sizes. I have already sold 10. I hope I will be able to sell the rest of the cows by tomorrow (Sunday)" Md Jalil Sheikh, who came from Jibanagar upazila of Chuadanga told this FE correspondent at Jatrabari cattle market.
He said that he could cover his financial losses of Tk 50,000 incurred last year by this year's sale. Â
The prices of bulls and goats showed a declining trend compared to Friday.
A small 10-12kg goat was selling at Tk 12,000 to Tk 15,000, while medium-sized goats, weighing between 15kg and 25 kg, were priced at Tk 18,000 to Tk 20,000.
Trading has been going on amid tight security arrangements made by the law enforcement agencies to avert any incidents like mugging, doping and transactions with forged currency notes.
The presence of an additional number of law enforcers in and around the cattle markets and several counterfeit currency-note detection machines were also found operating in those markets. Several teams of plainclothes policemen were deployed inside the market to catch criminals.
Meanwhile, fifteen cattle traders have been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) on the day after they fell sick after taking food adulterated by miscreants. They were brought from a cattle market at Mirpur's Rupnagar area in the capital. All of them hailing from Mirpur upazila of Khustia came to the capital with cattle.
The traders were admitted to DMCH early morning on Saturday. They fell sick after having food on Friday night. It is suspected that someone had poisoned their food. The cattle traders claimed the miscreants had made good their escape with Tk 153,000 from one of the traders.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com