Four armed men entered into the office of Provincial Conservator Sindh Wildlife Department on the wee hours of Saturday night, took the security guard hostage and stole heavy consignment of dried meat of freshwater turtles, said police.
The stock of around 1,200 kilograms of dried turtle meat costs around Rs. 1 million in international black market.
Alertary Maidan Police Station registered a case and started investigation. On-duty officer at the police station told Daily Times that with the help of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, installed in the wildlife office, police will soon arrest the culprits. “We came to know that some wildlife officials who worked with former conservator are involved in the stealing of turtle meat, so we are investigating and as soon as we find proof, we will arrest them,” said police official.
Recently, Sindh government removed former conservator Taj Muhammad Shaikh on the allegations of issuing birds-trapping-permits despite ban and on the reports of monitoring team about mismanagement in the department.
According to Wildlife officials, this consignment of freshwater turtle meat was confiscated by Sindh Wildlife Department’s team and later half of the meat was sold illegally without meeting codal or legal formalities; in order to hide that, remaining meat was stolen.
“We have registered complaints with police and will take strict action whoever is involved in this,” said Javed Mahar, newly appointed Provincial Conservator Sindh Wildlife Department.
Published in Daily Times, January 27th 2019.