The leopard attacked people who lived in a private housing society in the federal capital, Islamabad. On Friday, the Islamabad Police said they had filed a case against an unknown suspect for keeping a leopard as a pet.
A day before, when the leopard was loose, it attacked several people. The Islamabad Wildlife Management Board later got rid of it (IWMB).
The case was filed at the Sahala Police Station under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 324 (attempt to commit qatl-i-amd) and 289 (negligent behaviour towards an animal) (PPC).
The Islamabad police said on Twitter that the suspect put people’s lives in danger by keeping dangerous animals.
The police agency also said that the suspect is being looked for and that legal action will be taken after they are caught.
On Thursday night, the news spread quickly that a leopard was roaming around Islamabad and attacking people. Several people shared pictures and videos that went viral on social media.
In videos of the six-hour trip that were shared on social media, the young male cat was seen slipping between cars, knocking down a man, and jumping over a garden fence.
After playing cat and mouse for a few hours, the IWMB caught the wildcat and took it to the city’s old zoo, which closed in 2020 because of how it treated animals.
The animal, which is between two and three years old, is now living with a brown bear, a tiger, and a few monkeys. All of these animals were saved by wildlife officials in the past few months.
The IWMB said today that the leopard is a male and that he is “in good health” at their rescue and rehabilitation centre. “The next steps for the rehabilitation of leopards will be decided by the scientific committee of the IWMB. The IWMB staff has given Leopard the name Deeaitchay “Twitter said the news update.
Sherry Rehman, who is in charge of climate change, also gave an update on the leopard and called for the end of private zoos.
She posted a video of the cougar on Twitter and wrote that he is “alive and well.”
“One of our wildlife staff got hurt pretty badly during the 6-hour operation to catch it. The community and the animal could have had to pay a lot more, “she sent tweets.
She said later that the government is still looking into where the leopard came from. “At first glance, it still seems like a private property, but that hasn’t been confirmed,” she said.
Earlier, when asked about how many people the leopard had attacked, the police said that word of the leopard had gotten a lot of people out of their homes, and the leopard was attacking one person after another.
As people worked to catch the leopard, an official from the wildlife department was attacked, forcing the anti-terrorism police to open fire.
The police had also confirmed that the leopard had attacked a female wildlife officer. They said, “She only lived because she was wearing a protective jacket.” The animal then went into a nearby house and got stuck in the basement.
Three wildlife officials were hurt when they tried to catch the leopard by setting up traps, but the leopard broke through the net twice and got away.
Residents were told to stay away from places where the leopard was seen by the Wildlife Management Board.
In the past few years, a lot of exotic mammals were brought into Pakistan or bred there, which caused problems for wildlife officials.
In the country, big cats are seen as signs of wealth and power.
The Margalla Hills are on the other side of Islamabad. There, a zone has been set up to protect wild leopards in the area.