GILGIT: The authorities arrested five persons for killing a snow leopard in Hoper valley of Nagar district in Gilgit-Baltistan. Three of them were sentenced by the wildlife magistrate.

Sources said that a female snow leopard was killed in Hoper while her two cubs disappeared. The wildlife team recovered the skin of the killed leopard. Search operation was underway to trace the missing cubs.

Sources said that wildlife department with help of law enforcement agencies arrested a man on Tuesday after getting information about the killing of the snow leopard. The arrested man identified as Mohammad Saleem, 25, a resident of Hoper valley confessed to his crime.

He told police that he and his friends killed a female snow leopard near Hoper glacier some 12 days ago. He said that the leopard was living with her two cubs in the mountain near the glacier.

The arrested man said that they freed the cubs after killing the leopard.

Later police also arrested four more persons identified as Mohammad and Jaffar Ali, residents of Hoper, and Mohammad Amin and Jan Alam, residents of Hunza for helping in the killing of the leopard.

The wildlife magistrate, Jinabran Haider, sentenced Mohammad Saleem and Mohammad to one year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs5,000,000 on each of them. A co-accused was sentenced to one month imprisonment.

According sources, Mohammad Saleem uploaded its pictures on social media after killing the snow leopard.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2020