FAISALABAD:
A judicial magistrate on
Tuesday set free 300 birds that had been illegally captured by hunters. The
birds had been recovered on Sunday when the bird catchers were arrested at the
Faisalabad Airport. On Tuesday, the suspects were produced before the court.
The judge fined them a total of Rs150,000 and sent one of the hunters, Ramazan,
to jail for seven days.
He directed the
officials to free the birds in the supervision of a court official. After the
judge signed the order, Judicial Magistrate Asif Naul accompanied a team of
Wildlife Department officials to Kallar Kahar, where the birds were set free.
Earlier, on Sunday, the
Wildlife Department arrested 11 men suspected of attempting to smuggle around
300 birds, including 119 falcons.
Wildlife Inspector Atif
Saeed told The Express Tribune that UAE-based royal prince Marwan bin
al-Makatol had arrived in a private plane to hunt rare birds in Mianwali, Jhang
and adjacent areas.
He said some local bird
hunters had approached the prince and offered to sell him some birds. He said
the men had rented an ambulance and loaded it with cages carrying more than 300
birds, including 119 falcons.
He said a Wildlife
Department team had conducted a raid on being tipped off and arrested 11 men,
including the prince’s agents.
Saeed said Prince
al-Makatol had a licence to hunt in Mianwali but was not allowed to take them
out of the country.
He said the prince’s
agents Abdur Rasheed, Abdul Aziz and Roshan Khan were handed over to Thikriwala
police.
SHO Fayyaz Ahmed the
suspects belonged to Khushab, Mianwali and Dera Ghazi Khan. He said no
complaint had been filed against the prince.
Published in The Express
Tribune, November 7th, 2012.
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