Afghan rustlers have allegedly snatched about 2,500 goats from a pasture in Pakistan’s northwestern valley of Chitral, residents and officials claimed on Saturday.
The poacher crossed the border into the Kalash valley and herded away the livestock from Birir area, a district police control room official was quoted as saying by two mass-circulation newspapers.
According to Dawn, the goats owned by the Kalash community were grazing in the high-altitude pasture. The shepherds did not resist as the bandits herded the goats toward the Durand Line.
In the adjoining Bumburat valley, Afghan thieves faced resistance from shepherds on Friday. The two sides traded gunfire, killing two of the locals on the spot.
A resident of Birir, Ibrahim Khan, told Dawn more than 40 armed Afghan bandits appeared in the pasture and started assembling the goats from three places and took them to Nuristan province.
Another inhabitant of the remote valley, speaking to The News, put the number of sheep and goats at 400. In the second attack in as many days, the shepherds managed to save their lives by taking refuge in a nearby village.
District Police Officer (DPO) Asif Iqbal Mohmand said the first incident happened early Friday morning near the border. Subsequently 150 additional security personnel have been deployed to the area.
Some quarters suspect Nuristan-based Pakistani insurgents were involved in both incidents. They have carried out similar attacks in Pakistan’s border areas in the past as well.
The Pakistani insurgents had sneaked into the Bamburet valley three years back, killing a shepherd from the Kalash community and taking away a herd of 200 goats and sheep.
