Forest Department Rawalpindi had earned more than Rs 2.1 million by fining timber thieves in the last three months and confiscating stolen wood.
A team of the department led by Nazim Forest Iftikhar Husain Qureshi, on the directives of Nazim-e-Ala Forest Raja Khalid Husain, started an operation against timber thieves in Rawalpindi, Murree, Kotlian Sattian, Jhelum, Chakwal and Attock and arrested many people.
According to Iftikhar, a team had been constituted to stop theft of valuable lumber in the region, while guards had been alerted. “Officials of the department found involved in assisting thieves would be penalised,” he said. According to sources, the department sold the seized wood for more than Rs 9.6 million, and made more than Rs 1.6 million by selling trees that had fallen due to thunderstorms on roadsides.
