KARACHI, Nov 9: Although scattered incidents of hides snatching were reported in different parts of the city during the three days of Eidul Azha, the overall law and order situation was under control and almost every party involved in hides collection appreciated measures taken by the law-enforcement agencies in the metropolis.

However, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) criticised the government for not issuing permission letters to at least 50 per cent of seminaries in the city and alleged that the LEAs stopped volunteers of certain seminaries from collecting hides.

Police sources said fewer than a dozen incidents of hides snatching were reported during the three days, and there was no casualty.

A hides snatching case was reported within the remit of the Al-Falah police station on Wednesday, the third and last day of Eid, where armed men took away five or six hides from a mosque, they added.

They said hides were snatched from volunteers of religious seminaries. Most cases of hides snatching were reported in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Federal B Area, Malir and New Karachi, where activists traded gunfire also.

Hides of sacrificial animals were collected by a number of seminaries, charities, welfare organisations, including the Khidmat-i-Khalq Foundation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Al-Khidmat Foundation of the Jamaat-i-Islami. The Awami National Party and the Pakistan People’s Party are not involved in hides collection.

A spokesman for the KKF, the MQM’s charity wing, refused to disclose the number of hides collected by the party in Karachi, but said this year the MQM got a tremendous response from people, who “voluntarily donated the hides of their sacrificial animals at out collection points”.

He said no hide was snatched from any of the KKF volunteers as the law-enforcement agencies had taken “sufficient measures” to prevent such incidents.Similar views were shared by Qasim Rasheed, the man in charge of Al-Khidmat Foundation’s hides collection activity, who said the party got much more hides than it had done last year.

“We collected 26,000 hides on the first day of Eidul Azha,” said Mr Rasheed. “Though no one has snatched hides from us, we got reports that some people who wanted to donate hides to Al-Khidmat were harassed.”

He expressed satisfaction over the security measures taken by the government.

A spokesman for the Sunni Tehrik also claimed that his party got more hides compared to the last year’s.

“The ST got 6,260 hides during the three days of Eid,” he said, adding that last year the party had collected 5,300 hides in Karachi.

He said the ST collected hides in a peaceful manner and this year no incident of violence was reported or no one had snatched even a single hide from ST workers.

He praised efforts of the law-enforcement agencies, particularly Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, for making extraordinary security arrangements and maintaining peace in the city.

Qari Usman of the JUI-F told Dawn that the government did not issue permission letters to around 50 per cent of religious seminaries in Karachi. “What should we say about the incidents of hides snatching when the police and Rangers stopped our volunteers from collecting hides on the pretext of implementing the code of conduct?”

He said the JUI-F, as a political party, was not involved in such activities as religious seminaries collected hides.

Meanwhile, on the first day of Eid, armed men stormed into a religious seminary, Ashraful Uloom, in Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block 14, fired into the air and took away dozens of hides.

Also on Monday, groups of armed men exchanged gunfire in the Khokhrapar area following a clash over the collection of a hide from a house.