How two donkeys fell victim to Pak politics

ISLAMABAD: It all began with an insult. Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf party, referred to supporters of former premier Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N as “donkeys”.

Two days after Khan’s statement, on Monday, PTI activists in Karachi caught hold of a donkey and painted the name of a rival political party — allegedly PML-N — on the helpless animal. They then began thrashing the poor animal, leaving it almost at the point of the death.

The plight of the animal was highlighted by an animal rescue group, the Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (ACF), which posted photos of the tortured donkey on social media. The post went viral within hours.

The donkey was “beaten to pulp, punched in the face and abdomen several times, nose broken, kicked all over his body until he collapsed, has rope marks and a car rammed into him... all of this to describe one political party as an ‘ass’ by some hooligans as written on the poor donkey’s body,” ACF posted on Facebook.

The animal’s nostrils were ripped apart and his face continues to bleed from all the wounds, the post said.

On Wednesday, another donkey was attacked.

“It appears he has been pelted and beaten on the head repeated by jagged edge objects or stones. His skull is completely visible, maggots have eaten all the flesh within it. His left eye has been gouged out. He was bleeding so profusely we had to let it flow into buckets,” ACF posted.

“With the upcoming elections looming upon us, no one is spared from the wrath of this time...not even the most helpless of animals. This is a hate crime. This was the second such incident in a matter of days,” the post said.

However, PTI distanced itself from the incidents.“This kind of cruelty has to stop across the board,” the party tweeted.