MUZAFFARABAD: Two brothers were mauled to death by some carnivore, most probably a leopard, in a jungle on the outskirts of Palri village of Neelum valley on Monday, an official said.

Akhtar Ayoub, a disaster management officer in district headquarters Athmuqam, told Dawn that 20 years old Qadeer and Amjad, 16, had accompanied their parents earlier in the day to collect firewood ahead of the winter season.

As the family had collected a large cache of firewood, the sons asked their father, Munir Ahmed, to go back to their village and bring a jeep to the last part of the hilly track, where they would drag the commodity in the meanwhile, he said.

Both parents left for home and when the father returned on a jeep at about 5pm, he did not see his sons at the designated spot. As he moved into the jungle in their search, to his shock he saw the duo having been mauled to death by a leopard, Mr Ayoub said.

The bodies were removed by villagers amid heartrending scenes to the district headquarters hospital in Athmuqam where medics stitched their wounds and police completed procedural requirements before handover to the aggrieved family.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2022