Wild animals rescued from city house

A mobile court seizes the rare animals, stashed for being smuggled from Bangladesh, from a house in the city's Dhanmondi yesterday, inset, also recovers hides of spotted deer. Photo: STAR

A number of wild animals and hides of spotted deer were seized from a house in the city's Dhanmondi on Thursday night.
Tapan Kumar Dey, conservator of forests at the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Circle in Dhaka, executive magistrate Anwar Pasha of Rapid Action Battalion and ASP Shafiul Alam conducted the drive and also arrested three persons from the house.
The team seized three emus, two silver pheasants, one bali hash, six rabbits, parrots, a star tortoise and hides of two spotted deer from Flat B-1 of House no 27 in Dhanmondi's road no 14A.
The arrestees are Mahbubur Rahman, 45, Bithi Akter, 25, and Ahammad Ali, 20.
A mobile court led by Anwar Pasha sentenced Mahbubur to one-year imprisonment and Bithi and Ahammad to six months jail each for violating the Wildlife Conservation Act. They were later sent to jail.
The team said the gang has long been involved in smuggling of rare animals from Bangladesh.
The animals were sent to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Cox's Bazar for collection of further evidence and treatment.