Why 40-year-old popular goat market in Varanasi was sealed before Bakrid

He added that the action was taken after officials conducted an inspection in response to the complaints.

Authorities sealed the premises – a 6,000 square feet area — four days after the sale started and indicated that the market will be shut permanently.

Traders, however, said they received no prior notice about the closure and alleged that officials arrived at the site and ordered them to vacate the premises within just 30 minutes.

Public Relations Officer, Smart City (Varanasi), Shakambhari Nandan Sonthalia, denied the charge and said permission was revoked on Friday and a direction was issued to traders to vacate the market — which had been operating from a section of a public park in Benia Bagh area — in three days.

When shopkeepers and livestock traders did not vacate the market, officials said teams from the administration and police cleared the area on Monday, eventually resorting to strict enforcement measures to shut the site down.

The operation triggered anger and panic among traders, many of whom were present when officials arrived to enforce the closure.

Traders are also uncertain about where they will now buy and sell livestock a day before Eid. Many said the abrupt action threatened to cause heavy financial losses, particularly for small traders who had travelled from different districts with animals purchased on credit.

“We borrowed money by mortgaging valuables and taking loans from moneylenders at high interest,” one trader said in a video shared on social media. “If we are unable to sell our animals and recover the money, how will we repay our debts?”

Another trader said he had no option but to take his goats back home, claiming that no other market in Varanasi would now allow them to sell livestock ahead of the festival.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Samajwadi Party and Congress accused the authorities of using the closure of the goat market to inflame communal tensions ahead of Bakrid.

State Congress president Ajay Rai said the decision to shut the market was aimed at creating divisions between communities.

“Nobody had any problem while the market was functioning. Granting the permission for the market first, and then abruptly withdrawing it, appears to be a deliberate move by the government,” Rai, who is from Varanasi, said.

Dilip Dey, president of the Samajwadi Party’s Varanasi metropolitan unit, also criticised the administration, saying the government was “looking for excuses to create communal tension”.

He said that after the market’s closure, residents were now being forced to travel across the district in search of goats ahead of the festival