MUZAFFARABAD: A leopard that had played “hide and seek” with residents of the AJK capital for more than 36 hours was finally captured on Tuesday afternoon, bringing much-needed relief to the panicked populace.

The drama began late Sunday night, when reports emerged on social media that a leopard had been spotted in the Sathra area. Residents fanned out with torches and mobile phone lights to trace it, but in vain.

CCTV footage that surfaced later showed the animal roaming through Madina Market, a busy commercial hub about a kilometre away, without coming into contact with night watchmen or passers-by.

On Monday morning, the big cat was sighted in the Central Plate neighbourhood near Jinnah Dental Hospital, where it leapt past a female resident and crouched in an open plot beside her house. “Surprisingly, it was not violent but friendly,” she recalled.

Another resident, Raja Asad Khan, described his unnerving face-to-face encounter when the leopard jumped into his house. “As I stepped out of the washroom, I suddenly found myself staring at it. I swiftly locked the room, retreated to safety and alerted emergency services,” he said, adding that the animal appeared overwhelmed rather than aggressive. “It did not deliberately target my house. It was simply fleeing human pursuit.”

Police and wildlife teams rushed to the spot, but the leopard slipped away again, sparking conflicting reports about its whereabouts and a flood of memes on social media.

Later in the day, the animal entered a scrap warehouse along Plate Road owned by Matiullah Khan, an Afghan national settled in Muzaffarabad. His children managed to lock it in a room, but the leopard forced its way out through a narrow opening and climbed onto the roof before disappearing into a three-foot-wide alley, hemmed in by tall buildings, leading to a basement where it eventually got stuck.

Wildlife teams attempted to tranquilize it with a dart gun, but the confined space made it nearly impossible to strike properly. By Tuesday morning, the leopard had become visibly stressed and vets advised against sedation, fearing it could prove fatal.

At this stage, Mr Khan volunteered to take matters into his own hands.

Donning a helmet and gloves provided by the wildlife department, he crawled into the cavity with ropes as cameras rolled.

“It attacked me thrice, but I didn’t give up. I wanted to rid this city, which gave me livelihood and respect, of fear and panic,” he later told Dawn.

With assistance from wildlife watchers Junaid Akram and Raja Mudassar and local volunteer Hasnain Ali Khokhar, the leopard was finally subdued and dragged into the open, before being shifted to an iron cage.

The animal, believed to be aged between 1.5 and 2.5 years, was later transported to the wildlife department’s rehabilitation centre in Chela neighbourhood.

“We will keep it under observation to monitor its behaviour, following which it will be released into its natural habitat,” said Wildlife Monitoring Officer Dr Shaista Ali.

“At the moment, it is healthy and active, but if its condition deteriorates we will transfer it to Islamabad,” she told Dawn.

Since the leopard had shown little aggression during its early encounters and it remained unclear how it had strayed into the city, many residents speculated it might have been a pet.

Dr Ali, however, said it was too early to either confirm or rule out that possibility.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2025