15 baby monkeys seized from bus

KARACHI:

Law enforcement agencies have confiscated 15 baby monkeys from a passenger in a bus coming from Peshawar.

Acting on the tip-off, a team of Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) boarded the said bus at the Karachi toll plaza on M9 Motorway and seized the baby monkeys, besides taking the passenger, Mir Qadir, into custody for animal trafficking.

Ashfaque Ali Memon, an officer of the SWD, told The Express Tribune that the age of all the monkeys were between one and half to two months. "They are babies and were caught from the wild," he explained. He said that the passenger bus was coming from Peshawar.

Memon presented Qadir before the court in Malir, seeking his physical remand in police custody for further investigation on Wednesday. The court has granted the request.

"It is an illegal transportation of the monkeys and legal action will be taken against the smugglers according to the new law of the department," Memon said.

The SWD officials said that all the monkeys were being brought in small wooden boxes. They said that after rehabilitation, all the animals will be sent back to their habitat.

Deer poaching

Another case of the illegal hunting of the deer near Mithi city has been registered by the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) on Wednesday against the hunters.

Meanwhile, the court in Mithi has also granted one day's physical remand of three accused in the case pertaining to hunting down deer in a wildlife sanctuary.

Police produced three deer hunters in the court of Judicial Magistrate Mithi and sought their physical remand. The magistrate granted one day's physical remand of the accused to the police.

Speaking to The Express Tribune Mir Aijaz Talpur, the officer of the SWD to inquire about the incident in Tharparkar said that the First Offence Report has been registered against the hunters according to his department's new law, Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act 2020.

"The investigation is underway," Talpur said. "We have to probe for what purposes the hunting was being carried out," he said. He said that he was of the views that some of the hunters usually sale meat of the hunters in Karachi and Hyderabad. "We will also investigate if local officials were involved in the incident," he added.

On Tuesday, villagers after confronting with hunters caught three men along seven slaughtered deer. The villagers said that there were total five hunters but two of them managed to escape.

The locals tied their hands and thrashed them over the hunting of deer. Getting information of the incident, the police reached the spot and shifted them to the Mithi police station.

Taking notice of the incident, SWD suspended three officials of the SWD including, deputy conservator Mirpurkhas Riaz Ahmed Rind, game officer, Abdul Ghafoor Sarhandi and game watcher, Basheer Khaskhli.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2022.