Newborn girl ‘dumped’ to die, but survives
A girl was born in Daska Mouza Kanwan Lat, but instead of being put in a cradle, she got dumped into a bucket, and the bucket was then thrown in the fields.
Not only that. An attempt was also made to slash her throat with what is presumed to be a knife.
Notwithstanding the nature of cruelty meted out to the newborn, the baby survived, and her survival could only be attributed to divine intervention which rendered the acts of the perpetuator of cruelty null and void.
A man happened to go past the fields where the bucket was lying. He heard the noise of a baby’s cry. He scanned the field but could not see any person present other than himself.
He took a few steps when he again heard the cry of a child. This time he scanned the area closely.
To his utter astonishment, the noise of the baby’s cries was coming from a bucket.
A feeble-minded soul might have escaped the area head over heels. But the person walked up to the bucket and what he found inside the bucket made his hair stand on end.
The newborn was immediately shifted to hospital where full medical assistance was given to the newborn.
Dr. Saman, who is attending the newborn, said the wounds on the girl's neck had been stitched, and now there was no danger to the girl's life.
Dr. Saman said that if the jugular vein of the girl had been cut, it would have been difficult for the girl to survive.
Sialkot DPO said that a case had been registered, and the culprits would soon be held and punished.
Tanveer Ahmed, president of a local NGO, said that they had been getting calls from people all over the world showing their willingness to adopt the girl.
In the month of March, a man pumped four bullets into the body of his seven-day-old daughter in Nurpur Mohalla of Mianwali.
The accused, Shahzeb Khan, had been married two years ago and Allah had blessed him with a baby girl, Jannat, born seven days ago.
The baby’s maternal grandfather, Nasrullah Khan, told the police that his son-in-law had killed his daughter because he could not accept his wife giving birth to a girl -- and not a boy.
Shahzeb Khan is said to have had his basic education from a ‘good’ school, but he was more in sync with the “mores” of a “society” that considered it “a great humiliation” to have a baby girl or to be “the father of a girl”.
Nasrullah Khan, the maternal grandfather of Jannat, said that he himself had become the plaintiff in the case, and “we will never forgive our son-in-law at any cost. We will punish him severely”.
After the postmortem at Mianwali Hospital and legal proceedings, the body of the baby was taken by her maternal grandparents to Iskanderabad where her funeral prayers were offered.
Ismailur Rehman Kharak reached the District Headquarters Hospital where other senior police officers were also present.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2022.