Residents enjoy cool, calm and joyous Eid

Rawalpindi: Almost all major markets in town along with those set up in relatively smaller localities and vicinities along main roads remained crowded with visitors till late in the night on ‘chand raat’, however retail sales witnessed a significant drop as compared to the festive occasions in the previous years.

The population in town celebrated the festival of Eidul Fitr with great zeal and fervour. The residents celebrated a cool, calm and joyous Eid as no unpleasant incident or any bigger emergency was reported from anywhere in the district and the weather remained pleasant on ‘chand raat’ and Eid day.

Murree Road (Benazir Bhutto Road) from Saddar to Faizabad along with almost all roads leading to markets in Saddar area, Tench Bhatta, Peoples Colony, Chour Chowk, Raja Bazaar, Commercial Market satellite Town, Banni Chowk, Adyala Road and Rawal Road received heavy influx of traffic till late in the night on ‘chand raat’.

Most of the retailers operating in almost all markets, however, were of the view that there had been a significant reduction in sales on the festive occasions of ‘chand raat’ and Eid mainly because of economic crises and record high inflation.

A number of tuck shop owners along Murree Road, Tipu Road and Mareer Hassan told ‘The News’ that compared with the sales in the previous years, there has been at least a 30 per cent reduction in sales on Eid.

People, however, enjoyed the festive occasion by visiting markets. A number of visitors in markets expressed to ‘The News’ that they wanted to collect as much happiness as possible on Eid because they had been facing frustrations throughout the year mainly because of price hike, political instability and due to the bad law and order situation in the country.

The city was giving a deserted look on the first and second day of Eid and there remained a thin traffic on almost all roads including Benazir Bhutto Road, much notorious for prolonged traffic jams.

Soon after Fajr prayers on the first day of Eid, all the graveyards in town started receiving heavy influx of people who turned up there to offer ‘fateha’ on the graves of their loved ones. Light showers in town early in the morning turned the weather much pleasant convincing people to come out of their homes whether to visit their dear ones or to enjoy Eid day in public parks.

Rawalpindi witnessed a trend like that of the big cities and the food outlets in even smaller localities received better business particularly in the night on ‘chand raat’ and Eid days. The public parks in town particularly Ayub National Park, Jinnah Park and Nawaz Sharif Park remained heavily crowded on the first and second day of Eid while local restaurants, pan shops, Bar B Q and fast food points witnessed heavy crowds in the nights.

As a rare phenomenon, on almost all roads in town, the traffic was peaceful on Eid and no one seemed to be in a hurry or stress of reaching somewhere before anyone else. The city was giving the look of a peaceful and prosperous town on Eid days that may be termed as contrary to routine.