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Sri Lanka’s gift to Pakistan ends up in Cambodia
Singer Cher interacts with Kaavan, at the sanctuary in Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia December 2. (REUTERS/Leng Len)
After a seven hour long flight, Kaavan, the Sri Lankan baby elephant that was gifted to former Pakistan President Zia ul Haq in 1985, is reportedly walking around its new home in a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary.
The Government of India also stepped in to help in the translocation, giving special permission for the valuable cargo flight to stop over in New Delhi.
After 35 years in an Islamabad zoo, where a Pakistani High Court was told he had been treated “abysmally”, cricketer turned Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered the pachyderm be retired in the company of fellow elephants.
The Government of President J.R. Jayewardene donated the baby elephant to President Zia for Pakistan’s steadfast support for Sri Lanka to militarily combat what was then a growing separatist insurgency in the North and East spearheaded by the LTTE tacitly backed by India. During his visit to Sri Lanka on December 10, 1985, President Zia was given a debrief by the military high command of the insurgency then in its nascent stage. He had offered Pakistan’s military armoury and advisers to defend Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at that time. Several Sri Lankan military personnel were sent to Pakistan for advanced training at the time. President Jayewardene visited Pakistan in 1986.
The campaign to free Kaavan started back in 2015 when a local Pakistani student started an online campaign. This led to pop diva Cher’s ‘Free the Wild Foundation’ taking up the case. Last week, Cher herself visited Islamabad despite the Coronavirus pandemic to personally thank Prime Minister Imran Khan after the local High Court had also ordered the Islamabad Zoo to close down.
It was not clear why Kaavan was not sent back to Sri Lanka. Its mate at the zoo, Saheli, also from Sri Lanka, died in 2012.
Cher singing to Kaavan in Pakistan (Facebook)