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The tragic incident occurred at about 5pm in Nalai Dabran, a village situated in Pandu sector near the Line of Control (LoC), some 15 kilometres from the town of Chinari and 65 kilometres from Muzaffarabad.
According to Raja Abdul Waheed, an official at the Chinari police station, the victim, Javeria — a second-grade student and daughter of Ghulam Mustafa Awan — was playing in the courtyard of her home when the predator suddenly attacked and dragged her away.
Alarmed by her disappearance, family members and neighbours launched a frantic search and combed nearby fields and wooded areas for over three hours. Eventually, they found her lifeless body in dense shrubs about half a kilometre away.
"The leopard had reportedly bitten her neck, drained her blood and then left the body in the bushes before fleeing towards the forest," the official said.
Notably, a local journalist, Raja Saddam Hussain, had raised the alarm about the predator’s presence in the area two days earlier.
“On July 24, I reported that a leopard had made its way into Bagh Mohalla of Garthama and attacked a child, who narrowly survived,” he said.
“We warned of potential danger and urged the authorities to act, but unfortunately, no preventive measures were taken,” he said.
The tragic death has once again brought attention to the increasing human-wildlife conflict in AJK’s forested regions. Environmental degradation, deforestation, and expansion of human settlements have pushed wild animals, particularly leopards, closer to inhabited areas, often with deadly consequences.
Attempts to reach officials from the AJK Wildlife and Fisheries Department for comment remained unsuccessful until the filing of this report.
The incident has left the residents of Nalai terrified, with many families confining themselves indoors out of fear of another possible attack.
Funeral prayers for the young girl will be offered in Nalai Dabran at 11am on Sunday.
Tariq Naqash
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