KARACHI: Two suspects transporting 53kg of dry meat and body parts of freshwater turtles — all protected species — by a car were arrested in Babarloi town of Khairpur district on Sunday, wildlife department sources told Dawn.

They were arrested in a joint raid carried out by wildlife officials and Khairpur police. A case against them was registered against the Lahore-based suspects.

“The traffickers identified as Haji Himmat Ali and Shaukat Ali were held at a bus station located in the jurisdiction of Babarloi police station near Sukkur where they had come to make a cargo delivery for turtle parts to Lahore,” said Khairpur City ASP Dr Mohammad Imran Khan.

Initial investigation showed that the suspects used to collect dry turtle parts with the help of local poachers residing along the Indus and its water bodies, he added.

“They are involved in smuggling out such consignments to other countries from Lahore. They would be produced in court for further legal proceedings,” he said, adding that earlier they had been using Karachi as a point to smuggle out illegal consignments.

Asked about the seized species’ identification, wildlife conservator Javed Mahar said samples from the consignment would be sent to the Bio-Resource Centre in Islamabad for the species’ identification.

Reports suggest that freshwater turtles caught in the interior of Sindh are usually destined for Karachi, from where the turtles or their body parts are smuggled to other countries such as China (including Hong Kong), South Korea and Vietnam via air or sea routes).

Some traffickers, it is said, have extended their network to Quetta, and use the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to smuggle out wildlife species.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2019