Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police on Saturday announced that they had caught two men accused of shooting a dog multiple times for 'politically-motivated reasons'.

A 45-second clip of two men shooting a dog wrapped in a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Isaf (PTI) flag had emerged on Twitter on Friday night and quickly attracted condemnation from several users.

A series of tweets posted by an account claiming to be the official account of the KP police department said that police had acted on the matter after a video of the incident went viral on social media.

The suspects were arrested for "torturing, killing the animal and making [a] video of the shameful crime".

The account also shared pictures of the two men, along with a confessional video of one of the arrested. The account also thanked social media users for "raising the issue".

One of the arrested men, who identified himself as Umar, confessed that he was involved in the animal abuse incident. After being probed further, he told the police that he was exhorted by a man named Sayeen Ullah to torture the dog.

The animal abuse incident was the latest that came to light in the past month.

Earlier this month, animal rescue shelter Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation had shared pictures of a donkey who was tortured by political workers, seemingly in reaction to a speech made by PTI Chairman Imran Khan regarding former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's supporters.

The donkey succumbed to his injuries six days later.

While The Prevention of Cruelty of Animals Act, 1890 exists, the punishments outlined in it are dated.

In an applaudable effort, however, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior had on February 7 this year passed a bill titled “The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill, 2018”.

The bill seeks to increase the punishment levied on violators of the Act.

Before the passage of the bill, the fine for killing an animal with unnecessary cruelty was just Rs200. The current bill suggests this be increased to Rs300,000 along with imprisonment.