With Animal Sacrifice And A Downpour, Dhaka Celebrated Eid With Blood Flowing Down Its Streets

Not so far away from us lies a city of challenges, a land that fights for water, freedom, sanitation, hygiene and a lot more on a daily basis. Thousands of people die in Dhaka every year due to water-borne diseases and the vicious cycle continues.

But that isn’t all of it. The Megacity also struggles from the pressure of swelling population, with some 400,000 new residents arriving each year from rural areas in search of a better lifestyle.

The city thus stands vulnerable to many difficulties — skyrocketing real estate prices, exponentially growing slum areas, poor housing quality, proper sanitation, traffic jams, air pollution, broken roads, inadequate clean water, electrical blackouts, and terrible governance, to name a few.

Relevant to the aforementioned, Dhaka recently witnessed one of the most horrific sights, and it was literally a bloodbath.

On the occasion of Eid-al-Adha on Tuesday, rainfall and animal sacrifices around the city created a dreadful scene of blood streaming across the city streets.

Due to the poor drainage system and extreme case of waterlogging, roads in many parts of the city were submerged in blood.

And even though the sight of streaming blood disturbed a lot of people, the traditional practice of animal sacrifice continued, adding to the existing havoc.

Civic bodies and corporations were blamed the most throughout the course of Eid-Ad-Adha because of the poor management and sluggish pace of cleanup. Many pointed out that the incident is a testament to the faulty management of the drainage system.

Prior to the event, two areas in Dhaka were allotted 496 and 504 spots each to perform the ritual. However, regardless of the allotment, many were seen performing the rituals on the streets and wherever convenient. Thus, within no time, numerous streets were covered in blood.

Upon asking a lot of people, some had put the blame on the management for their failure at planning well in advance for the festivals. Others said that the allotted spots were too far from their homes, thus, they chose a place of their choice.

Areas like Malibagh, Baily Road, Shantinagar, Bijoynagar, Paltan, Motijheel, Jatrabari, Bakshi Bazar and Kathalbagan saw people slaughtering animals right in front of their homes.

"Waterlogging has been a problem from a long time and we're looking for ways to fight that", said an official.