Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has decided to revoke legal permission to keep wildcats as pets across the province after a minor boy lost an arm in a lion attack last week.
In a statement on Monday, Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said the chief minister had taken notice of the lion attack on eight-year-old minor boy, identified as Wajid, at a farm in the Sabzazar area of Lahore — the second such incident in the city within a span of two days.
Aurangzeb said the CM ordered strict action against the farm’s owners over their attempt to conceal the incident and give incomplete information to the hospital.
The senior minister said CM Maryam expressed sympathy with the victim and his parents, and directed that complete medical care be provided to the child.
The suspects were arrested, and a first information report was registered against them over a deliberate concealment of an incident and the amputation of the minor boy’s arm, said Aurangzeb, adding that the farmhouse owner also forced the child’s parents to tell a false story.
In the wake of the incident, the Punjab government has decided to remove the clause of keeping wild cats from the Punjab Wildlife Act.
According to police, the victim’s child had gone near the lions’ cage while playing at the farm, adding that the incident occurred due to an unsafe cage and the owners’ negligence. The police added that the boy was shifted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
“The boy was badly injured in the attack, and his arm had to be amputated,” the hospital’s spokesperson said. The child’s condition has improved since the arm was amputated, and he is out of danger now, the spokesperson added.
The incident followed a similar case reported on Thursday, when an eight-year-old girl was injured after being attacked by a pet lioness in Lahore’s Bhekewal Pind area.
The animal’s owners were later arrested, and the lioness was recovered. The child suffered injuries to her leg and ear and was immediately shifted to the hospital.
