Pakistan officials probe family over cooking bats, find ‘fried fish’ and ‘roasted chicken’

Islamabad: A neighbour’s complaint about a Chinese family cooking bats in Islamabad proved unfounded when a quick probe by the authorities on Thursday found fried chicken and fish hanging from a wire.

A joint team of the District Administration of Islamabad and the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) visited a Chinese family’s house in Islamabad after a social media user posted pictures of what he claimed were ‘roasted bats’ hanging from a wire inside a house. He claimed this could cause spread of coronavirus and urged the district administration, health authorities and police to take swift action.

However, all the ‘claims’ turned out to be fake and the ‘bats’ in fact were ‘fried fish’ and ‘roasted chicken.’

Islamabad’s DC Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat in a tweet clarified that a team of the district administration as well as the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) visited the house and it turned out to be fish and chicken and no bat was being cooked or eaten by them.

Sakhawat Naz, Manager Operations of the IWMB, confirmed a team visited the house but did not find any bats there.

This is a traditional way to preserve meat and many Chinese families do this by hanging the meat after salting on a wire in the sun, said Sakhawat.

The complainant however persisted for some time claiming the family had removed the bats before the raid was conducted, but accepted his mistake after an explanation from the team.

He later apologised for the mistake. “Apologies, there weren’t any bats. I’m not the neighbour. Concerned neighbour reported the authorities as well. Glad to know no one is cooking bats. Thank you!” he wrote in the post.

Another social media user Salman A also drew attention towards the pictures posted. If you look at them carefully, you will find they are not bats but chicken and fish.

In parts of Balochistan, Sindh KP and even along the southern Punjab many families dry mutton and chicken, salt them and hang from the wire in the sun to preserve it for future use.

Since it was ‘desi’ chicken, a breed leaner than the white shaver chicken used for cooking, the complainant mistook it for bats, the IWMB official further explained.