CHITRAL: A poacher of Kashmir Markhor in the Tushi Shasha conservancy area Serum was arrested red-handed by the community watchers and some of the parts of the hunted animal and the automatic rifle used in the incident were recovered.

Divisional forest officer of Wildlife Division Chitral Farooq Nabi told Dawn that the community was told by an informer that Shahwar Ahmed of Seen village had hunted a markhor in a pre-dawn shooting and had shifted the carcass into a corral situated in the pasture to conceal it there in daytime.

He said a contingent of community watchers was constituted to raid the corral from where they recovered the hide and the 22-bore automatic rifle and the used shells from the spot which they took into their custody along with the culprit present there.

During initial investigations, the accused confessed to his crime and recorded a video to this affect while a case was instituted against the accused under different sections of KP Biodiversity Conservation Act, 2015.

The accused was produced before a local court from where he was sent to the judicial lock up.

This year, a Kashmir Markhor permit in the Tushi Shasha conservancy had been sold at more than Rs70 million.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2025