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PESHAWAR, Aug 18 (APP):The Wildlife Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has foiled a bid to smuggle four skins of rare snow leopard and arrested four poachers on Hazara Expressway on Friday.
“The seizure and arrest came in the wake of prior information about smuggling of skins to Islamabad from Hazara,” informs Sardar Nawaz SDFO Wildlife Department Abbotabad.
On receiving information, checking was started on Hazara Havelian road during which the four smugglers were arrested along with preserved skins of snow leopards.
The recovered skins included one large and three small, apparently of a mother and three of her cubs, adds Sardar Nawaz.
Initial investigation revealed that the smugglers were bringing these skins from Ghizer district of Gilgit Baltistan for taking it to Islamabad, SDFO told media men.
The seized skins were purchased by smugglers at a price of Rs 3 million and had to sell it in Islamabad at a much more expensive price.
The Wildlife Department while taking action under Wildlife Act 2015, fined each of the smugglers Rs one hundred thousand each.
It merits mention here that the snow leopard is a very rare and reclusive wild specie which has a limited population in a few countries including in mountainous ranges of Pakistan.