<i>130 turtles seized, 2 arrested</i>
Some of the 130 turtles seized by police from two persons arrested during a drive at Chittagong Railway Station yesterday. Photo: STAR
Police yesterday seized 130 turtles and arrested two persons from Chittagong Railway Station. The arrestees are Zakir Hossain, 25, and Hiran Mia, 20. Acting on a tip off, a team of Government Railway Police conducted a drive at platform 5 of the railway station and detained the two who were about to board the Chattala Express, an intercity train bound for Dhaka, said Ahsan Habib, officer-in-charge of the railway police. Law enforcers found 130 turtles after searching four plastic bags belonging to Zakir and Hiran, added the OC. During primary interrogation, the detainees admitted that they got the turtles from Chittagong Fishery Ghat and were taking them to Akhora and had law enforcers not apprehended them, the turtles might have been smuggled, the OC said. A case was filed under the Wild Animals Preservation Act and the turtles would be handed over to forest department, he said. The OC further added that police later on produced the three before a Chittagong court and prayed for a three-day remand for further interrogation. “As turtles are not sold on the open market, we suspect that they would have been smuggled, and so, we can get more information after further interrogation,†he told the court.
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