Guardianship dispute: Infant ‘strangled to death by mother’

Police say autopsy report confirms strangulation as cause of death

ISLAMABAD: Police are on the lookout for a woman who allegedly strangled her six weeks old son to death due to a guardianship dispute with her in-laws.

Police say Sidra, the suspect, was married to Adnan Rasheed about a year ago but only about three weeks after marriage, she developed differences with her in-laws and came back to live with her parents at Chatha Bakhtawar.

After around nine months, she gave birth to a boy, who was named Hashir.

In the meantime, she demanded divorce and the boy’s father and her in-laws demanded the custody of the boy.

On August 16, someone from the girl’s family phoned her in-laws and told them that the child had expired.

The boy’s father, a resident of Chirah area, suspected that his son might have been killed, and lodged a complaint with Shahzad Town police.

Sub-Inspector Tasadduq Hussain said post-mortem examination found that the child was strangled to death.

The police, following the post-mortem held Sabir and Danyal, the child’s maternal uncle.

Hussain says during interrogation, the infant’s maternal grandfather confessed that Hashir was strangled to death by his mother, Sidra.

Police have booked Sidra, child’s maternal grandfather Sabir, Danyal and Nighat, the victim’s maternal grandmother, for murdering the child on the complaint of his father.

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