Animal rights [and wrongs] : Police raid ‘illegal’ camel festival in Dera Ghazi Khan

Arrest three, register FIR against 14.

MULTAN:

Police on Thursday arrested three people during a raid on a camel festival in Kot Chattha in the Dera Ghazi Khan district.

Police said the men had been arrested for gambling on camel fighting.

The raid was monitored by Station House Officer Ammar Yasir.

Police said leaders of the Bashir Aliani and Khuda Bakhsh Harjana tribes had organised a camel festival in Noorwala. They said camel owners had come from Choti in DG Khan and Rojhan and Jampur in in Rajanpur to participate in the camel fight.

Police said the organisers were required by law to take permission from the district administration to organise the fight, but they did not.

They said the police had been tipped off about the festival a few days ago. They said the organisers had been warned not to organise the festival.



They said over Rs1 million had been spent on the festival, where 30 camel owners brought their animals to participate in the fight.

Station House Officer Yasir told The Express Tribune that initially the organisers had told them that the festival was being organised to promote culture through camel shows and race competitions.

He said when police visited the scene, they discovered that the participants had been betting on camel fighting.

He said and FIR was registered against 14 people, of which three were arrested.

He said most spectators and participants fled the scene. He said tents and other installations had been confiscated by the police.

The organisers and participants later protested against the police. They said the police had demanded that they be bribed to allow the festival to be organised. The protesters said when the refused to bribe the police, they were threatened by the police.

The protesters said when they first approached the police, they were not informed about the law that required them to take permission from the district government.

They said there had been several incidents where police raided festivals illegally to mint money.

They said they had spent over Rs1million on the event.

“We might as well would have sought permission from the district coordination officer, had we been told to do so,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2014.