Infanticide? Girl’s body found in hospital’s washroom

BBH management suspects victim’s mother, who disappeared from hospital

RAWALPINDI: The body of a seven-year-old girl was found in a washroom at Benazir Bhutto Hospital (BBH) on Wednesday.

The victim was identified as Nimra Saeed. The hospital management suspected that the victim may have been smothered by her mother, who was missing from the scene.

The body was shifted to District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.



According to BBH Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir, the child’s body was found at 8:15am in a washroom in the children’s ward. The police took the body into custody after being informed by the hospital management. Dr Mir said that Nimra was staying with her mother in a side room in the ward as two of her infant siblings were admitted in the hospital.

“A circular mark was found on the neck of the victim, which suggested that she had been suffocated with a shawl…allegedly by her mother, who was missing after the incident,” Dr Mir said.

“I left my wife and daughters, including Nimra, at the hospital while I went to get breakfast. When I got back, I found my daughter dead in the washroom,” the MS quoted Saeed Qureshi, the father of the victim, as saying. The family hails from Gujar Khan.

Dr Mir said the police were investigating the case and the body has been moved to DHQ for postmortem.

He said that the children ward has one entrance and exit point which is monitored through CCTV.



Rawal Division SP Malik Muhammad Iqbal confirmed that the girl’s body was found at BBH, but it was not clear how the girl died. He said that the police were waiting for the postmortem report to determine the cause of death. A case will be registered once the police get the report, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2016.