Qasim Khan waged the unlikeliest of battles with Pakistani
authorities Thursday over the right to charge hundreds of curious
visitors the equivalent of 22 cents each to see a roughly 40-foot whale
shark he bought from a fisherman.
Khan is in the business of
buying fish, albeit usually much smaller ones, and jumped at the chance
on Tuesday to pay about $2,200 for the 20-ton behemoth, which was
discovered dead in the Arabian Sea off the southern Pakistani city of
Karachi.
Business was brisk Wednesday, as several thousand people
paid to see the brown and white-spotted shark, which Khan set up under a
cloth tent next to the harbor. People crowded around to put their hands
on the massive fish, and families snapped their picture with it —
ignoring the pungent smell as it began to rot.
But police cracked
down Thursday, saying fishery authorities had decided people should be
allowed to see the shark for free. Khan resisted and hid his prize
attraction under the giant piece of green cloth he had previously used
as a tent.
The move sparked a comic game of cat and mouse between
Khan and the police. They would order him to remove the cover, which he
would do briefly before replacing it. Then the cycle would start over
again.
"We are told to protect and facilitate the people to see
this rare fish, but this man is not allowing this," said police
inspector Mohammad Aslam at the scene.
Khan countered by saying he
paid 200,000 rupees for it. "To recover my cost I am charging just 20
rupees per ticket, but the forsaken fishery authorities have deprived me
of this fortune," he said.
The altercation angered some of the hundreds of people who crowded around the fish.
"We
came here to see the fish after the media hype, but to our dismay they
are not allowing us to see it," said a young businessman, Sohail Shah.
One
local newspaper had trumpeted the discovery with a headline that read
"All is 'whale:' 'Moby Dick' comes to town ahead of Karachi Literature
Festival."
Whale sharks, which are believed to grow up to 65 feet
(20 meters) in length, are the largest fish in the sea and primarily
feed on plankton, squid and small fish. They are found in tropical and
warm temperate seas, and are harmless to humans.
Some people who turned up in Karachi were upset to see people climbing all over the shark.
"This is sheer disrespect for animals," said 20-year-old nursing student Usman Zada.
But nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of 9-year-old Fizza Umar, who came with her father.
"It was so huge!" Umar said. "I wish I could take it home."
Ashraf
Daniel, a pastor of an Anglican church, was also delighted by the visit
because he felt it reinforced his religious faith.
"Our Bible
says that Saint Jonah survived three days in the abdomen of a whale, so I
brought my children to see themselves the strength of God," said
Daniel. AP
