Possessed: Mother throws three children into BRB Canal

Police say she might have been influenced by a pir.

LAHORE:

A woman killed three of her children on Thursday by throwing them in the BRB Canal, allegedly on a pir’s advice.

Amna*, a resident of Burjpur village, pushed her four-year-old daughter Nusrat, seven-year-old Nadia and eight-year-old Hassan off Hayer bridge. Cantonment division Superintendent Umar Riaz told The Express Tribune that an Irrigation Department official saw Amna push her children into the canal and then climb down the bank to rescue them. The official shouted for help. The official told police that they had stopped the woman from jumping into the canal and had called the police who took her into custody.



The Cantt SP said Amna’s neighbours had told them that she had been visiting Baba Sohnay Shah, a pir, near the Ravi siphon. He said they suspected that the pir had told the woman to throw her children in the canal.

Amna was said to have taken her children to visit the pir on Thursday morning, but he had not met him as he was away, the SP said.

The Hayer SHO told The Express Tribune that Amna’s father, Muhammad Amjad, had told them that he believed that his daughter had been possessed by demons for some time. She had probably acted under their influence, he said.

Rescue-1122 spokesman Jam Sajjad said that when the bodies were shown to Amna and her husband, she did not appear to even recognise them and remained emotionally indifferent. Her husband, Sajjad said, fainted when he saw the bodies.

Muhammad Amjad, a resident of the same village, told police that he had given the children Rs10 each in the morning to spend on candy. “I know my daughter isn’t mentally stable but I cannot believe that she would kill her own children.”

He said Amna had been taken to a psychiatrist for a check-up at a mental hospital some time ago. She had been on medication and the doctor had recently declared her stable, he said.

Police said that they would send Amna for a psychiatric check up. Her husband, Muhammad Abbas, has filed a complaint against his wife. A case has been registered under Section-302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (murder) at Hayer police station. Shareef told the police that his eldest son, Mohammad Nadeem, 12, had been at the school and had escaped the fate of his siblings. Amna has been shifted to Race Course women’s police station.

*Names have been changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2013.