A day after a leopard escaped and injured several people in a posh neighbourhood of the capital, the Islamabad Police on Friday launched a criminal investigation against an unidentified person for “domesticating” a leopard.
Yesterday, after videos of the cat running along a road and scaling a wall in Islamabad’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Phase II neighbourhood went viral on social media, authorities spent hours trying to catch the cat.
According to a tweet from the Islamabad Police, the Sahala Police Station, which has jurisdiction over DHA Phase II, has arrested an unnamed suspect for attempted murder under section 324 and animal cruelty under section 289 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The police claimed that the leopard was a pet in an unidentified person’s house. A second tweet stated that “the suspect endangered the lives of citizens by keeping dangerous animals.” “The accused is still being sought; legal action will be taken once we have him in custody,”
Living and well
Sherry Rehman, the minister responsible for climate change, tweeted a picture of a large cat lying on the ground and wrote, “The leopard that escaped from a private zoo last night in Islamabad is alive and well at our Animal Rescue centre at the old zoo.”
“Its six-hour capture operation seriously injured one of our Wildlife staff,” she continued. There could have been much higher costs for both the animal and the community. PREVENT private zoos.
The leopard was captured by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB), who shared videos of the animal moving around in its enclosure while “in good health.” Additionally, it was revealed to be male and that his name, “Deeaitchay,” was given to him by staff as a play on the area where he was found.
Male leopard at IWMB’s rescue and rehabilitation facility is in good health, it said. The IWMB scientific committee will choose the next steps for the rehabilitation of leopards. The IWMB staff has given the leopard the name Deeaitchay.”
“Its six-hour capture operation seriously injured one of our Wildlife staff,” she continued. There could have been much higher costs for both the animal and the community. PREVENT private zoos.
The leopard was captured by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB), who shared videos of the animal moving around in its enclosure while “in good health.” Additionally, it was revealed to be male and that his name, “Deeaitchay,” was given to him by staff as a play on the area where he was found.
Male leopard at IWMB’s rescue and rehabilitation facility is in good health, it said. The IWMB scientific committee will choose the next steps for the rehabilitation of leopards. The IWMB staff has given the leopard the name Deeaitchay.”
A Tough day
It took the IWMB and Capital Development Authority more than five hours yesterday to catch the leopard, which, according to a report in Dawn, may have escaped from a safari park and become “trapped” among alarmed locals.
Around 10 p.m., the IWMB had to use a tranquillizer to sedate the animal after trying unsuccessfully to lure it into a cage and confining it in a closed area with the help of the volunteers and staff members present. The leopard would be kept at a rescue facility in the Rescue Center, which formerly housed the Islamabad zoo, according to Rina Saeed Khan, the director of the wildlife board.
Around 4 o’clock, videos of the cat roaming the housing society began to circulate on social media. These videos showed the panicked leopard attempting to flee the area but instead running into buildings and scaling walls.
The leopard was also seen attacking a volunteer for the IWMB twice. During the entire incident that led to the wild cat’s capture, three people—two of them IWMB employees—were injured. In a different video, a man who appeared to be a private security guard fired at the leopard without caring about the wellbeing of the crowd that had gathered there. The relevant authorities, however, denied this.
Three people were hurt, and the cat is likely to be taken to a “rescue centre.”
Call for help
A leopard bit a security guard on the back, the DHA security reported to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Department at 4:20 p.m. When the IWMB team got to the housing development, Rescue 1122 was already there, but Rina Saeed Khan of the IWMB said that it had not been able to block off the area. She claimed that despite warnings from CDA staff to stay inside, many TikTokers had gathered dangerously close to the leopard. As Khan explained, “The leopard attacked because it felt cornered.”
Common leopards cannot be kept as pets, according to Rina Saeed Khan, and legal action will be taken if it can be proven that the animal has an owner.
Rizwan Mehboob, who works for IWMB, thought at first that the leopard seemed to have gotten away from a nearby farm after being hurt by a cat. The leopard did not attack in the manner of a wild cat, which usually goes for the neck of its prey.
As a result of human encroachment into their habitat, common leopards have disrupted life in settlements before.
In the Saidpur model village in Margalla Hills, leopards broke into several homes in November of last year, causing panic.
IWMB stated that although the villagers claimed to have seen four leopards, leopards were extremely territorial and did not forage in packs like a pride of lions.
