Business at Goni Khan Market hit hard as markets open in Srinagar ahead of Eid festival

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Sajidah Yousuf

Srinagar: Every year, days before Eid women folk across Kashmir would throng Srinagar’s “Zanana market” popularly known as ‘Goni khan’ market for shopping. However, this year, the business at Goni Khan Market was severely hit due to Covid-19 pandemic.

As per the report, the Srinagar administration had allowed opening of essential services shop for two days with strict adherence to Covid-19 protocol. While as shops dealing in essential services and commodities were allowed to open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm by the Srinagar administration.

Apart from city, usually women from neighbouring districts also used to shop in Goni Khan Market, which is famous for its variety items for females. From buying clothes to cosmetics or shopping for a wedding to putting ‘henna’ on hands, zanana market has it all.

Though, this year people were seen in less numbers. While women and shopkeepers seen wearing mass, however there was no social distancing in the market.

Mehrajud din, owner of a cosmetics shop, said “Situation is different this time around. People are in fear while roaming around the market. The market used to be buzzed with women customers, but this time around people are less in number”.

He added, “We used to bring different items for women customers, but we this time we are failing to even sell the items we have. Moreover, we have to spend extra money of sanitization and other things”.

“Two days are not enough for the Eid shopping, but we have to also look into current situation as well. In between all those things, we have suffered a huge loss in this pandemic”, said Ghulam Nabi, another shopkeeper from the Goni Khan Market.

“Women from across the Kashmir would come to my shop and purchase dresses for Eid, but with no transport, they could not reach. There were few customers but they purchased only few items”, he added.

“I have never witnessed such thing in my life. I and my mother used to come at Gani Khan Market and shop all day. But today we purchased few items. Covid-19 pandemic is taking heavy toll on both customers and shopkeepers”, said Shakeela, a resident of Zakura.

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