12 ‘cattle thieves’ arrested from Lahore

RAHIM YAR KHAN/ GUJRANWALA:

Kamoke Saddar police on Wednesday claimed to have arrested, from Lahore, cattle thieves who they believe had been stealing buffaloes from across the district and then selling them off in other areas of the province.

SHO Nasir Mehmood Punnoo said that 12 stolen buffaloes and two trucks were seized during the raid. A total of 12 suspects have been arrested, among them are Ghualm Murtaza from Sheikhupura and Khalid Sakin and Aamir Sakin from Faisalabad.

Police claim that the men have confessed to working for one Irfan Warraich of Shahdara who used to pay each of them Rs10,000 for stealing cattle. The suspects told police that Warraich has “dozens” of hustlers working for him.

Cantt police, too, arrested two men believed to be cattle thieves.

Arshad and Amjad were arrested “while they were on their way to sell the stolen buffaloes”, according to the police.

Officials said that the two men belonged to a gang, many members of which are already in jail.

In Rahim Yar Khan, DPO Sohail Zaffar Chattha described buffaloes as “the poor man’s Pajero” during an open kutchehri on Wednesday.

The DPO made the remark when Mohammad Bakhsh, a resident of Sheedani, came to him and requested that he direct the police to arrest the man who had stolen his buffalo and recover his cattle.

The DPO assured Baksh of the police’s cooperation and said officials would do their best to make sure that he gets back his buffalo.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2012.