Murder in hospital: Who killed this baby?

Police arrest mother, grandmother on suspicion of having killed a newborn.

ISLAMABAD: A newborn baby boy was found dead in a hospital on Thursday.

A nurse in the maternity ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) told the police that she suspected the mother and grandmother of killing the baby.  Police arrested the two on charges of murder.

The nurse told the police that the two ladies had killed the baby only hours after he was born. Police said the mother of the new born, Ayesha*, was married some three months ago while the baby was born after a normal pregnancy of nine months.

Ayesha was brought to the hospital by her mother-in-law, Fazeela*, complaining of labour pains. She gave birth to a baby on Tuesday through normal delivery. However, the hospital staff found the baby dead only after a few hours of his birth. As there were no apparent causes of death, the hospital staff suspected the baby was murdered. Sister Julie, the warden of the maternity ward, then reported the incident to Margalla police.

The two suspects have been shifted to Women Police Station. Police said the apparent motive behind the baby’s murder could be to hide the woman’s ‘sin’.

Neither her husband nor any one of her in-laws had contacted the police to pursue the case, police claimed, despite their repeated efforts to contact them. The police official added that in reality it was the husband of the wife who brought the two women to the hospital. “He vanished after that,” said the official.

*Names have been changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2011.