MANSEHRA, Sept 6: Police on Thursday arrested two timber smugglers, who had allegedly killed four members of a family in Oghi for informing the forest department about illegal cutting of forest in their neighbourhood.

“The head of the victim family, Wali Mohammad, had informed the forest department about illegal cutting of forests by these timber smugglers which infuriated them and they killed four people of the family,” said district police officer Sher Akbar Khan while speaking at a press conference here.

He said that four people, including a woman, had fallen prey to the smugglers. He said that during preliminary investigation the police came to know that the family had complained about the illegal cutting of the forest by the accused in forest near their house last month and the forest department had taken action against them.

Mr Khan said that Mr Wali had nominated Mohammad Fiaz, his brother Shahzad and their accomplices Dilawar and Abdul Qayyum in the case and the police arrested Dilawar and Fiaz from Banda Bagla area in the limits of Pulrah police station.

The accused had gunned down Mr Wali’s father Gulzaman, his wife Hussan Jan, son Mohammad Asif and nephew Mohammad Ameer.

COMPENSATION AWAITED: The residents of Paladran Nukka, whose over 90 goats and sheep were killed by a bunch of bears late last month in Kaghan Valley, have urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department to pay them compensation for their lost herds. Four people were also injured in the incident.

A group of the affected people, headed by Qari Sarfaraz, told reporters the other day that following the incident last month a two-member team of the wildlife department visited their area and assessed the damage, but they had not be provided the compensation so far.

They said herds of 10 families were killed, while Ghulam Nabi, Abdul Rehman, Ghulam Sarwar and Attaullah sustained critical injuries while protecting their herds from bears. He said that two of them were still in hospital.

In response to a query, they said that if the wildlife department didn’t take effective measures to keep bears and other wild animals away from the population they could again attack them and their herds.