Wolf enters house in Torkhow, injures three

CHITRAL, Feb 25: A Himalayan wolf entered a house in the Melp village of Torkhow valley on Sunday evening and injured three people, including an infant. Mohammad Ayub of the village said the wild beast entered his house and attacked his mother and wife who struggled hard to ward it off by using sticks but got serious injuries. He added that some of his neighbors rushed to their help and made the wolf to flee. In the meantime, however, the wolf also injured his infant daughter biting on her cheek. Mr. Ayub said he was not present in his village while the villagers rushed his injured family members to DHQ hospital Chitral. A doctor in the hospital said two of the injured, including an old woman and the infant, were in a critical condition due to excessive bleeding. The distance from the village to the hospital is about 100 km and there are no health care facilities in the village. Some of the villagers present in the hospital said that the wolves attacked the villages due to the heavy snow in the upper pastures and attacked human settlements in search of food. They complained that observing the rules for the protection of wildlife, they abstained from killing the beasts but the government put them at the mercy of the wild animals. They also feared that snow leopards can also come down due to the heavy snow on the mountain.–Zahiruddin]]>