Buzzing Iftar Bazaar in Chawkbazar Now Missing

Buzzing Iftar Bazaar in Chawkbazar Now Missing

The historic iftar market in capital's Chawkbazar area remained almost empty on the primary day of Ramadan amid shutdown for coronavirus.

People throng the centurial market every Ramadan to shop for various iftar items that are unique in taste and shape, but not this point .

Around 1,000 makeshift stalls are usually found out to sell iftar items prepared from meat, vegetable, sweet, milk and other ingredients within the market. In fact, a number of the iftar items within the market are often traced back to the Mughal era.

 

Buzzing Iftar Bazaar in Chawkbazar Now Missing

However, on April 23 this year, the Ministry of spiritual Affairs passed a press release banning any sort of congregation concerning iftar.

While this ban strictly relates to public events like iftar mahfil, the new norms of social distancing mean that this ban extends to home and personal space also .

As a result, this year there's no crowd around "Boro Baper Polay Khay" at Chawkbazar.

"Boro Baper Polay Khay" may be a mixture of chickpeas, minced meat, potatoes, brains, flattened rice, egg, chicken, spices and ghee. The item wont to be sold between Tk 350 and Tk 450 per kg and was one among the foremost popular iftar items within the locality.

Other famous items at Chawkbazar ifter market include beef and chicken roasts, mutton and chicken cutlets, keema roll, keema paratha, borhani and differing types of kababs including Sito, Jali, Irani and Tikka.

Mustakim Ahmed, a resident of Lalbagh, said, "It is our family tradition to interrupt our fast with the iftar items from the market, but this year it's impossible thanks to coronavirus."

Let alone the Old Dhaka dwellers, people from other districts also came to the market to get iftar items, he added.

Along with Chawkbazar, most markets of iftar items in most parts of the capital remained closed thanks to the government's restriction.

Barokatra, Chhotokatra, Imamganj and old a part of the town also remained empty, said locals.

Moudud Hawladar, officer-in-charge of Chawkbazar police headquarters , said they were strict to stay the traders faraway from selling iftar items to make sure social distancing.

The law enforcers talked to the traders within the area a couple of days back and asked them to not found out makeshift shops on the streets, the OC said, adding they were also announcing the restriction through loudspeakers.

To add to the present , police were also restricting concrete shops from selling iftar items as that might not let social distancing be maintained properly.

Golam Mostafa, a trader in Ibrahimpur area who sells iftar items during a tin-shed shop, said, "I took preparation to sale iftar during a smaller scale but police imposed restriction. Now i do not know what i will be able to do."

"I are selling iftar item for the last 20 years, but this year i'm in serious trouble thanks to the restriction," he added.

Another such trader at Ibrahimpur said he had made iftar items already and would sell those secretly as he would need to face huge loss otherwise.