Fishing cats, 7 other wild animals beaten to death in Sylhet

Local youths of Jaintapur area in Sylhet have beaten nine animals to death, sparking an uproar on the social media.

They killed six foxes, one mongoose and two big fishing cats (known as Baghdasha in Bangla). The incident took place at Balipara village in Fatehpur union on Friday morning.

According to local sources, there is a dense forest near Balipara village. After a few days of flooding in the area, the foxes came to the locality and snatched away a few ducks and roosters.

Agitated by the incident, local youths gathered on Friday and launched an attack in the forest near the village.

KH Zakir, a youth from the village and general secretary of Jaintapur upazila of Bangabandhu Shishu-Kishor Mela, uploaded some pictures of the deceased animals on Facebook on Friday afternoon.

The images came under widespread criticism from netizens, and also caught the attention of the local Forest Department.

"I saw the pictures on Facebook this evening and immediately sent the local chairman and UP members to the spot," said Saad Uddin, an officer of the Jaintapur Range of the Forest Department, adding, "Tomorrow morning, we will visit the scene too."

Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon's (Bapa) Sylhet chapter, said, "Killing them such a manner was a heinous crime, and punishment needs to be ensured after identifying the people who were involved.

Meanwhile, Sylhet Divisional Forrest Officer (DFO) Sajjad Hossain confirmed that a case will be filed over the incident soon.