Dhaka-Bangladesh: Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested six poachers and seized two tiger skins from their possession which are believed to have been acquired after the beasts were hunted down in the Sundarbans. The poachers were arrested from Satkhira Sadar upazila late last night, Rab 8 Deputy Commander Maj Adnan Kabir told our Bagerhat correspondent this morning. “Two tiger skins, each about nine-foot long, were seized from them,” the Rab official said adding that 10 rounds of live bullets were also recovered after conducting a search on them.
Those arrested are Sheikh Bakhtiar Uddin, 42, son of Mahiuddin Ahmed from Satkhira, and Md Gazi Selim, 35, son of Mokhles Gazi, Rabiul Islam, 35, son of Wazed Ali, Md Gazi Mostafizur Rahman, 36, son of Shahjahan Ali, Faruk Sana, 48, son of Md Ali Sana and Gazi Md Amirul Islam, 25, son of Sekandar Ali Gazi – all from Khulna. “One skin is fresh, suggesting that it was hunted down recently. The other skin is old – this tiger might have been hunted weeks ago,” he said. The elite force received intelligence that poachers had hunted down some tigers in the Sundarbans and were smuggling tiger skins through Satkhira, the official said. During primary interrogation, the poachers confessed to have been smuggling the tiger skins to Dhaka for sale, the official said. “They are being quizzed further.”
(Source : The Daily Star, 18 October 2014)