Muzaffarabad: The residents of the leopard and Ajk Capital were finally caught for more than 36 hours on Tuesday afternoon, bringing much needed relief to the panicked people.
The play began Sunday night when it was reported that a leopard was found in the Satra area appeared on social media. Residents fanned out fan with torches and cell phone lights to track it, but in vain.
CCTV footage that later surfaced showed animals roaming through the Madina Market, a busy business hub that was almost a mile without contact with night watchers or passers-by.
On Monday morning, the big cat was seen near the central plate near Kinner Dental Hospital, where a female resident squatted in an open air and occupied her house. “It’s surprisingly not violent, but friendly,” she recalls.
Another resident, Raja Asad Khan, describes his disturbing face-to-face encounter as the leopard jumps into his house. “When I walked out of the bathroom, I suddenly found myself staring at it. I quickly locked the room, retreated to safety and reminded emergency services,” he said. “It wasn’t deliberately targeting my house. It just escaped from human pursuits.”
Police and wildlife teams arrived at the scene, but the leopard slipped away again, triggering reports of its whereabouts and a large number of memes on social media.
Later that day, the animal entered a scrap warehouse owned by Matiullah Khan, which settled in Muzaffarabad. His children managed to lock it in a room, but the leopard was forced out by a narrow opening, climbed up the robbery, and then died in a three-foot-wide alley, poured into a tall building, leading to the basement, and eventually got stuck.
The Wildlife Team tried to calm it with a dart gun, but it was almost impossible for the narrow space to strike correctly. On Tuesday morning, the leopards were significantly stressed and fat was advised not to calm down because of fear that this could be fatal.
At this stage, Mr. Khan voluntarily took the matter into his own hands.
Wearing the helmet and gloves provided by the Wildlife Department, he crawled into the cavity with a rope as the camera rolled.
“This hit me three times, but I didn’t give up. I wanted to get out of this city, which gave me livelihood and respect, fear and panic.” dawn.
With the assistance of wildlife observers Junaid Akram and Raja Mudassar and local volunteer Hashain Ali Khokhar, the leopard was eventually subdued and dragged into the public before being transferred to an iron cage.
The animal is believed to be between 1.5 and 2.5 years old and was later transported to a rehabilitation center in the wildlife department.
“We will observe it after it is released to natural habitat to monitor its behavior,” said Dr. Shaista Ali, wildlife monitoring officer.
“Currently, it is healthy and active, but if its condition worsens, we will move to Islamabad.” dawn.
Since the leopard had little invasion in its early encounters and it was unclear how it flowed into the city, many residents speculated that it might be a hat.
But, Dr. Ali said it is too early to confirm or rule out this possibility.
Posted at Dawn on September 17, 2025
