A 6-year-old boy was mauled to death by a leopard at Khag in central Kashmir’s Budgam district on Friday evening. A police officer concerned told news agency GNS that the leopard attacked the boy namely Parvez Ahmad Kataria son of Mohd Shafi when he was on the Varanda of his house at Gujerpati, Drang area of Khag at around 7:30 pm.
The screams of the boy caught the attention of the family and the neighbours who rushed at once and retrieved the boy from clutches of the beast in critical conditions. They rushed the boy immediately to the primary health centre (PHC) where doctors declared him brought dead. Later, villagers protested against the wildlife department, alleging that despite raising the issue a number of times, it failed to take any measures to prevent infiltration of wild animals into villages.
The locals said that there have been numerous such incidents in the past but it fails to awaken the authorities who they said are in deep slumber. “We are poor people and our cries never attract the attention of the authorities,” they said and demanded quick action in this regard.