Karachi's rooftop cattle get a crane lift to the ground

KARACHI: Residents of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, watched as cattle were lowered by crane from the top of a four-storey home ahead of Eid al-Adha.

Unlike other Muslims who buy animals for slaughter a few days before the sacrificial holiday, Syed Ejaz Ahmad, 55, said raising his own calves was more economical.

Ahmad started raising calves in a rooftop shed about 15 years ago. As they grew in size, it became difficult to lead oxen down the narrow staircase of his house.

His solution? Call a crane service.

The operation has become an annual event in Ahmad’s neighbourhood of Nazimabad, where a crowd cheered as it watched the spectacle unfold.

“I was a bit scared when I did this for the first time,” crane operator Mohammad Hanif said this week as he swung Ahmad’s seven cows and oxen to the ground.

“When the animal’s feet struggled, I thought it might break the straps and fall on the crowd of people, particularly children,” he said. “Now I have a lot of practice doing it.”