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Actor Zhalay Sarhadi is calling for action after the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) demolition of a pet market near Data Darbar. Business owners said the 4am demolition resulted in many animals being buried beneath the rubble, sparking widespread horror and outrage online.

For its part, the LDA has denied that any animals were present in the market when the demolition took place, sharing videos of its staff members moving cages at an unspecified earlier time. The business owners say many of their birds and other animals were in cages at the time, sharing videos of the bodies of the animals being pulled out from beneath the rubble.

Social media was aghast at the imagery, calling the action cruel and inhumane.

Sarhadi, who has long been known for her championing of animal rights causes, took to Instagram on Saturday to share an impassioned plea.

“Since the time this incident I have tried my level best to make a video without crying but it is just not happening. What has happened at the pet market, what [the] LDA has done at the Data Darbar pet market, it makes no sense to me,” she said in the tearful video.

“It just literally makes no sense to me. Even if it was illegal land, it is your responsibility to get it evacuated. If you wanted to break things there or do violence, then it was your responsibility to get it evacuated. You buried speechless animals under the rubble for no reason. For no reason!”

She said that the authorities had done wrong by themselves. “You will do your construction, things will happen but this is not going to be forgotten. In the day and age we are in today, animal rights are already being talked about a lot.” She said the world is united on where human and animal rights stand.

“Those lives are gone,” she lamented, adding that perhaps the people who killed the animals didn’t think they would ever face God. “Dog culling also happens, [we] don’t even know what is happening with animals in the zoos. I mean human beings right now are the most evil creatures. So it makes no sense.”

Sarhadi called for the people responsible to be held accountable. “There have to be laws that are passed against them and they should be implemented. They should go behind bars. There should be some kind of punishment. Enough is enough. You can’t just keep on let this happening,” she said.

“Just because you can do it, you are doing it. I think these things happen without thinking. Who gives the orders? Who even gives orders for these things? And then does your heart not shake while doing this? Like I don’t understand, taking life of an innocent, we have been cursing Israel for the longest time but we are doing the same by killing innocent for no reason. And this is something that could have been prevented,” she lamented. The actor called on the federal government, everyone responsible and animal rights organisations to step in and take action.