Issues between Ismaili, Sunni butchers resolved
CHITRAL: Butchers belonging to the Ismaili and Sunni communities of Garam Chashma have resolved their issues on the intervention of the local administration.
In this regard, an agreement was signed by the two groups in the presence of the district administration officials, notables of the area and traders’ representatives. The issues related to the location of shops owned by butchers belonging to the two communities.
Under the agreement available with ChitralToday, the butchers belonging to the Ahle Sunnat community will have their shops in the lower part of the Garam Chashma bazaar that stretches from the area’s bus terminal (Ada) to the house of a local resident Sultan Salahuddin alias Sultani.
The area from the house of Sultani to the Ziarat bridge will be a buffer zone where no meat shop will be opened.
The butchers belonging to the Ismaili community will have their shops from the Ziarat bridge upwards, out of the bazaar area.
Under the agreement, shops owned by butchers belonging to both the communities will be shifted to the areas allocated to the Ismaili community and Ahle Sunnat jamat.
A local resident told ChitralToday that butchers belonging to the Ismaili community had for long been intimidated in their own majority area of Garam Chashma and now they have been pushed out of the main Bazaar area.
He said that the leaders of the Ismaili Imamat institutions were responsible for bringing the community to such a situation where they can not even do business.
The local Ismailis in Lotkuh or anywhere else should refrain from patronizing Sunni-owned butchers if they think they are in majority.
The so-called diplomatic approach taken by the Ismaili community leadership in the name of religious harmony is not a new phenomenon.
Allowing both communities to rate their own butcher shops is the best course of action, and consumers should be free to choose their own butcher shop.