LAKKI MARWAT: A wildlife department team on Wednesday seized eight falcons from a birds` smuggler near Darra Pezu town here.

District forest officer (DFO) Khan Malook told journalists that he had received information about the possible attempt of smuggling precious birds from Peshawar to Karachi. `Upon that wildlife officials were deployed at Gandi Chowk, Malang Adda, Tajazai and Wanda Banochi to keep an eye on suspected vehicles,` he maintained.

He said a team headed by range officer Mohammad Shahid Khan stopped a passenger bus on Wanda Banochi checkpoint and recovered eight falcons during search of the vehicle.

`The birds were being smuggled to Karachi from Peshawar in wooden boxes,` the DFO maintained. He said a bird smuggler, Amjad Ali, resident of Mardan, was arrested and a case was registered against him under relent sections of the Wildlife Act.

Mr Malook said that falcons were included in the endangered species and the poaching and transportation of the bird was banned globally.-Correspondent