As India is all set to celebrate the second-largest Muslim festival on Sunday, the northeastern state of Tripura has announced guidelines for animal sacrifices and banned any kind of illegal slaughter and transport of cattle.
However, as the notification in this regard went viral on social media, rumors were making rounds that the Tripura government has completely banned the sacrifice of any kind of animal.
Brushing aside the propaganda, a government official confirmed the newspaper that people can sacrifice animals following the guidelines and that the state government has no intention to hurt any religious sentiments.
“The Animal Welfare Board (AWB) of India issued a guideline to the Tripura government mentioning a few court judgments and existing anti-animal cruelty laws recently,” the official said preferring not to be named.
“Duly, we’ve forwarded the guideline to all the district magistrates and district superintendents of police. Also, lower-range officials have been informed of the development”, he said.
Regarding the “slaughter ban” rumours, the official from the Tripura government’s Animal Resources Development Department (ARDD) said: “People may have mistaken the order.
“There is nothing in the order to prohibit anything drastic. The notification from the Animal Welfare Board of India has been clearly defined and necessary directions have been passed to the authorities concerned”, he said.
The official further said no animal which is pregnant, diseased and is less than 3 months old, or has offspring less than three months old can be slaughtered and will be considered as illegal.
Sub-division Magistrate of Sonamura, Manik Das, echoing the ARDD official, said: “We’ve just forwarded the letter about the illegal transportation of animals and there is no ban on animal sacrifices.
“The order is just issued against the illegal slaughtering and illegal transportation of animals. The religious practices performed by people would remain unhampered by this”, added Das.
The majority number of minority people of the Muslim community live in Sonamura Sub-division in Tripura’s Sepahijala district and this place also hosts the biggest market of animals for sacrifice in Eid-ul-Azha.
When contacted, Tripura Board of Wakfs Chairman Shahalam Majumder said the main point of the AWB is to help stop the illegal transportation of animals and ensure the slaughter of “fit animals”.
Saying that the government imposed no bans of animal slaughter, he said: “Vested groups hatched a conspiracy to malign the name of our state and the state government.
“The Shariah Law prohibits the sacrifice of cows below one year of age and prohibits pregnant cow slaughter. It is almost as similar as the government order. There is no difference”, he told reporters.