An elephant named after 9/11 mastermind and former leader of terrorist organisation al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden killed five people in the village of Matia under Goalpara district in Assam.
According to reports from Agence France-Presse (AFP), the victims were crushed to death. One of the villagers called Rajen Rabha said that the incident took place Tuesday night earlier this week.
“But that was not all. In the past Laden has also attacked our villages and killed people and destroyed our paddy fields,” Rabha said to the media.
Assam Forest Minister Par Parimal Shuklabaidya assures that a committee which will include wildlife experts will be set up to decide what to do once the jumbo is found.
“There are suggestions that we should tranquilize the animal and take it to forest where there is no human habitation nearby,” Shuklabaidya said, according to AFP.
Drone cameras spotted the elephant Thursday in the Kankata Reserve.
“We have located and identified Laden in the reserve, which is about [10 miles] from Tuesday’s incident site,” a senior officer was quoted as saying. “The jumbo was visible for once or twice and then it went inside the jungle.”
The incident has shocked the locals in Matia who are finding it difficult to sleep at night in fear of the rampaging elephant.
“We will be able to sleep peacefully only after the killer jumbo is captured,” villager Kohinoor Hussain said.
PNN
