In a second incident of animal cruelty in as many weeks in the country, a donkey (jennet) had its ears severed in a village in Rawalpindi district, with its owner accusing another man of committing the brutality but police suspecting that the incident could be the culmination of longstanding enmity and land dispute.

According to first information report (FIR) filed 14 days after the incident took place at Rawat Police Station on Monday, a farmer named Tanveer Hussain, who is a resident of Dhakala Dakkhana, Saagri, stated that following the harvest of his last crop, the field was empty and so he let his donkey loose on his fields.

The animal would return home to drink water everyday but it did not do so on June 4, he said.

However, when it returned in the evening, Hussain noticed that its ears had been chopped off.

The FIR stated that Hussain asked the locals about the perpetrator. and everyone pointed towards Arshad Mehmood, a member of Hussain’s family, although they were reluctant to name him explicitly due to fear.

Hussain said he conducted his own investigation and found some evidence, which was handed over to the police.

Despite the incident occurring 14 days prior, Hussain’s case was only registered recently, with station house officer (SHO) Chaudary Zulfiqar telling Dawn.com that no arrests have been made so far but the investigation was ongoing and a conclusion would be reached soon.

Meanwhile, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Chaudhry Farrukh Shahzad, who is investigating the case, said that the suspect had filed a murder case against the plaintiff in 2005, accusing Hussain of killing Arshad’s father.

ASI Shahzad said that the “video evidence” submitted by the plaintiff only shows traces of blood outside the suspect’s residence, which he said was “insufficient to hold anyone guilty”.

Additionally, ASI Shahzad noted that there were ongoing land disputes between the parties, with Arshad having won four out of thirteen cases.

The accused, according to the ASI, is also suffering from back pain, which would make it difficult for him to pin down a donkey and cut off its ears.

Shahzad described the incident as suspicious and confirmed that the investigation was being conducted to cover all angles.

The case marks the second reported incident of animal mutilation in recent days. In an earlier case, a landlord chopped off a camel’s leg as punishment for foraging in his field in Sanghar.

Six suspects were remanded in police custody by a magistrate in Shahdadpur on Sunday.