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Eid shopping enters

in final stage

RAWALPINDI: Eid ul Azha shopping has entered its `final stage' with the hustle and bustle attached with the occasion clearly missing as people say prices of sacrificial animals and all other commodities are sky-rocketing.

The main item for the eid is sacrificial animals whose prices this year have spiralled un-precedentedly.

In Rawalpindi good quality and healthy`desi sheep' weighing is priced around 3,500 to 4,000. However, the sellers say their prices would come down `considerably' a night before the eid.

Buffaloes and cows are selling between Rs 18,000 to 20,000 while larger and healthier sizes are anything above Rs 50,000.

With sacrificial animals registering about hundred percent increase in comparison with last year, many intending sacrificers say they may not be able to perform the ritual.

"It is light on pocket to share a buffalo with others compared with buying a lamb or sheep," a shepherd said.

In the Federal Capital, the market has been set up at Peshawar More but the prices, as is the case with everything in Islamabad, are slightly more than Rawalpindi.-APP