Police arrest five in southern Pakistan for chopping off camel’s leg

The combination of photos shows the camel whose leg was cut off by a landlord in Sanghar district’s Mund Jamrao village in Sindh, Pakistan on June 15, 2024. (Photo courtesy: @MeghUpdates/X)
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Updated 16 June 2024
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Police arrest five in southern Pakistan for chopping off camel’s leg

  • Local media widely reported landlord chopped off camel’s leg after it trespassed into his field
  • NGO for injured and stray animals rescues camel, provides it treatment in Karachi 

ISLAMABAD: Police in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province this week arrested five persons for their involvement in chopping off a camel’s leg, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.

Local media reports said a landlord in Sanghar district’s Mund Jamrao village allegedly had a camel’s leg chopped off on Friday after the animal trespassed into his field for fodder.

The owner of the camel, a poor peasant named Soomar Behan, was contacted by police after the episode went viral on social media. However, Behan refused to file charges against the landlord following which police took action.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon confirmed that a case had been registered against the accused for amputating the camel on the state’s behalf, describing it as a “humanely unacceptable” act.

“He said that the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had taken notice of the incident,” APP said on Saturday. “Sharjeel said that the five accused had been arrested.”

Sanghar lawmaker Shazia Ata Marri wrote on social media platform X police took action as soon as she learned about the “horrible and painful” incident.

“While the police is still doing its work, proper medical treatment is being provided to the poor animal,” she wrote on X.

Section 429 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) states that anyone who kills, poisons, maims, or renders useless any animal of the value of ten rupees or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either a term of up to two years or be fined for the offense, or both.

CDRS Benji Project Karachi Shelter, a local non-profit organization working for stray and injured animals in Pakistan, provided treatment to the injured camel at a shelter in Karachi on Saturday night. 

“Cammie the camel is settling into her new home,” the NGO posted on Facebook with a video showing the camel feeding, a white bandage wrapped around her leg. 

“She is in pain, and it was traumatizing for her to be carried into the shelter. But she is eating now and taking in everything around her with those beautiful, intelligent eyes.”

The NGO said its staff had cleaned the camel’s wound to make sure it was not infected. 


Sindh cabinet approves compensation for Gul Plaza victims after deadly Karachi fire

Updated 27 January 2026
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Sindh cabinet approves compensation for Gul Plaza victims after deadly Karachi fire

  • Over 70 people were killed in one of Karachi’s worst fires, which took three days to extinguish
  • Deadly blazes have become frequent in the city amid weak fire safety, limited response capacity

ISLAMABAD: The Sindh cabinet on Tuesday approved a major relief and rehabilitation package for victims of the Gul Plaza fire, one of Karachi’s deadliest blazes, which killed more than 70 people and took three days to bring under control earlier this month.

The decision comes weeks after the fire ripped through the multi-story commercial building in the city’s Saddar area, trapping workers and traders as flames spread rapidly through the structure, exposing severe gaps in fire safety enforcement and emergency response.

Under the cabinet-approved package, families of those who died will receive Rs10 million ($35,800) each in compensation, while affected shopkeepers will be provided interest-free loans of Rs10 million per unit, with the provincial government bearing the cost of interest.

An additional Rs500,000 ($1,790) per shopkeeper has been approved as immediate subsistence support.

“There can be no compromise on human life,” Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said during the cabinet meeting, adding that the government’s priority was to support affected families while ensuring accountability.

“Relief, justice and prevention must go hand in hand,” he added.

The cabinet also constituted a high-level subcommittee, headed by the chief minister, to review the findings of an inquiry committee tasked with determining responsibility for the incident and recommending further action.

Fires have become an increasingly frequent occurrence in Karachi, a megacity of more than 20 million people, where fire services remain severely overstretched and under-resourced relative to population density and the scale of commercial activity.

Successive deadly incidents have drawn criticism of the Sindh administration over lax enforcement of building codes, inadequate inspections and limited emergency response capacity.