It took the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board and Capital Development Authority more than five hours to capture a leopard which possibly escaped from a safari park and found itself “trapped” in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) amid panicked residents.
The IWMB, after failing to lure the animal into a cage, had to use a tranquiliser around 10 pm to sedate it after being confined in a closed space by the volunteers and staffers on the spot. According to Rina Saeed Khan, who heads the wildlife board, the leopard would be kept at a rescue centre in the Rescue Centre, which used to be the Islamabad zoo. IWMB chief was coordinating with the commissioner when this report went to press. Around 4 pm, videos started making rounds on social media showing the feline running around in the housing society. These clips showed the leopard – also panicked – trying to flee the scene, but it ended up running into houses and scaling walls.