Grudge with contractor: Four booked for poisoning Rawal Lake

Locals barred from fishing allegedly contaminated the water to kill fish

ISLAMABAD: Police have booked at least four people for poisoning Rawal Lake, the water source for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

The matter came to fore when a large number of fish died in the Rawal Lake allegedly due to chemical poisoning. This is the second incident in a year when fish had been killed due to mixing of chemical poison in the water.

In July last year, footage of thousands of fish turning up dead on the bank of the lake had gone viral on the media after which a case was registered against unidentified people for contaminating the water.

A few days ago, the contractor who has the contract for fishing in the lake lodged a complaint against a few local people, who he said had contaminated the water to kill the fish.

Secretariat police have registered a case and nominated four people who live near the lake.

An officer said that these same people were suspects in the water contamination last year.

He said the locals used to catch fish and sell it to make a living but they had been barred from fishing after the contract was awarded for fishing by the fisheries department.

The suspects allegedly contaminated the water and made footage of the dead fish and sent it to some journalists to discredit the contractor.

But the contractor luckily had a few friends in the media who informed him that locals were forwarding the video clip to the media, after which he lodged a complaint against them with the police.

Police say they have registered a case but efforts to make arrests will be made after the elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2018.