This Eid, ‘rivers of blood’ flowed down Dhaka’s streets. Here’s why

On the occasion of Bakrid on Tuesday, Dhaka witnessed apocalyptic scenes, as the streets of the Bangladesh capital were flooded with bloody water. Social media users posted images of the unusual scene online, and they are telling.

Pictures of bloody streets, under overcast skies, are enough to put a city on panic mode. But, the “rivers of blood” are the city people’s own doing.

The gory scenes were created by unregulated animal sacrifices on the occasion of Eid followed by a downpour. The pictures point to two things: One, the dysfunctional drainage system of the capital city, and two, the lack of a campaign to urge people to sacrifice animals in designated spots, so that the city corporations could quickly clean up the streets.

Dhaka residents have been quoted in a report as saying that unlike the previous year, when the corporations had raised awareness about designated spots, this year, there was no such campaign.

Around 1,000 spots had been designated, but citizens ended up sacrificing animals on the streets, or wherever they found it convenient to do so. According to BBC Bengali, around 100,000 animals were sacrificed in Dhaka during Eid. The report says there is some amount of blood on the streets every year, but the rains made the situation worse this time around.