Timber: Forest officers attacked by ‘smugglers’

ABBOTABAD:

Two senior officers of the forest department were injured in an attack by unidentified timber smugglers, said the police on Sunday.

Police quoted sub-divisional forest officers Abrar Shah and Sardar Saleem as saying they were visiting the woods in Mera Rehmat Khan of Thandiyani forest range when more than six armed people attacked them.

The assailants beat them with fists, rifle butts and clubs. Locals later shifted them to Benazir Shaheed Teaching Hospital in Abbottabad. Police, meanwhile, registered a criminal case against unidentified criminals. The injured officers were certain they were attacked by timber smugglers who wanted to scare them away from the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2014.