PFA seizes pork meat being 'supplied to Lahore markets'

By
AFP
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PFA seizes pork meat being 'supplied to Lahore markets'
LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority on Wednesday claimed to have seized several kilograms of pork meat being supplied to Lahore and different parts of the province.

In a raid carried out near the Lahore Railway station, the authority also arrested a suspect transporting the banned meat from Rawalpindi. The meat was found inside large drums loaded on a train.

"It is being supplied to Lahore and then it is further sent to chains and restaurants where edible food is prepared," Ayesha Mumtaz, DG Operations of the Punjab Food Authority, told Geo News.

The suspect said he was taking the meat to a factory in Sheikhpura where he believed they used it to produce some kind of chemical.

Also read: Huge quantity of meat of dead horses, donkeys recovered in Lahore

But Mumtaz claimed the suspect was a member of a gang involved in supplying pork meat to different restaurants and food chains of Lahore and surrounding areas for consumption. The food authority official said that the supply of the banned meat was being carried out illegally for a long time on train.

She said that samples of the meat will be sent for DNA tests.

"We will carry out proper DNA testing of this meat and will take legal action against this suspect. We believe that this is an elaborate mafia, a chain and a vicious circle,” she said.

Consumption of pork is prohibited in Islam and banned in Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif took notice of the reports of pork being supplied to parts of Punjab, and ordered authorities to submit a report in this regard.