Four arrested as bid to smuggle 307 spotted turtles foiled

Key accused identified as close relative of man already nominated in FIR for illegal trade of turtles

Around 307 Spotted Pond Turtles were confiscated from a Karachi-bound pickup at Deh Akro II Wildlife Sanctuary, on Sunday. Four men including the main smuggler had reportedly been arrested, while the pickup they were in was impounded.

The turtles were found in 20 jute bags from a Datsun pickup, bearing number KG-5414, by officials of the Shaheed Benazirabad’s Sindh Wildlife Department.

The key smuggler identified as Saddam Mallah, son of Abdul Khaliq Mallah, also turned out to be a close relative of Sachey Dino Mallah booked in FIR no. 20494 for illegally transporting turtles from Sanghar to Karachi in a Toyota XLI, earlier this year, claimed conservator wildlife, Saeed Akhtar Balouch. 

Besides Mallah, the other three offenders included Ghulam Rasool, son of Ali Shair Brohi, Gul Muhammad, son of Muhammad Mithal Zardari, and Mallah’s dirver Babu Zardari, son of Salam Zardari.

The main accused was a resident of district Sanghar, and was also claimed to have confessed to supplying turtles to foreigners in Karachi since the past seven months.

Shaheed Benazirabad division’s deputy conservator wildlife, Dara Munir Qazi, stated that FIR regarding the case was registered while the case property was submitted to judicial magistrate Taluka Daur District Shaheed Benazirabad for a summary trial.

A judicial magistrate had on September 11 remanded three Chinese nationals and nine Pakistanis to the prison for 14 days for allegedly smuggling freshwater, black pond turtles.

The court also allowed the Sindh Wildlife Department to immediately release the confiscated turtles into their habitat.

The accused, including three Chinese nationals, who were real brothers, were arrested by the Sindh Wildlife Department on September 10 from two different locations in Karachi when a team of officials, led-by Deputy Sanctuary Warden Adnan Hamid Khan, raided a bungalow in DHA Phase VI and confiscated 780 freshwater, black pond turtles from their possession.

“All the 12 accused were produced before Judicial Magistrate II in the Malir Courts. We sought their custody for investigation but the court sent them to jail for 14 days. We also managed to get a release order for the confiscated turtles, which would be released to their habitat in the Indus River near Guddu and Sukkur Barrages,” SWLD official Adnan Hamid Khan told The News.

He said the arrested Chinese nationals, namely Chaolei Kang, Ziaoyo Kang and Sheng Kang, were brothers and had collected the freshwater black pond turtles for smuggling out to Malaysia, where they were used for preparation of traditional Chinese soups and traditional medicinal uses.