PESHAWAR, Aug 30: Officials of the wildlife department arrested a man in Amangarh, Nowshera district, on Wednesday night and recovered frozen turtle parts from his possession.

The animal was declared “protected species” a few weeks ago after cases of hunting of turtles were reported from different parts of the NWFP.

After confiscating and destroying parts of turtles recovered from a hut near the Shah Alam River a few days ago, the wildlife department officials raided a cement and hardware agency in the jurisdiction of the Azakhel police station in the Nowshera district.

On the request of the wildlife department, Nowshera DPO Qazi Jamil-ur-Rehman put together a raiding party which helped in arresting Mohammad Ullah, involved in illegal trade of turtles, said Mohammad Israr, divisional forest officer of the wildlife department.

He said they got information that two contractors —Mohammad Ullah, son of Ameen Ullah, and Arshad Ullah, son of Yousuf Ullah — had been trading in turtles.

The police and wildlife department officials arrested Mohammad Ullah and recovered 300kg of frozen turtles from a deep freezer.

The accused used to purchase turtles from poachers in the Swabi, Nowshera, Peshawar, Mardan and Charsadda districts and send them to Karachi for export to China, Thailand and other countries, an official of the wildlife department said.

He said the accused used to purchase turtles, found in fresh water in parts of the NWFP, by paying Rs250 per kilogramme to poachers.

Turtles have been added to the ‘schedule of protected animals’ under the NWFP Wild Life Act 1975.

The NWFP wildlife department banned hunting of turtles after declaring the hunting of and trading in the species of freshwater turtles found in the province as illegal.

Pakistan is also a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which prohibits trading in turtles, turtle parts and eggs.