Traced down: Police recover abducted newborn

ABBOTTABAD: Police claim to have recovered a newborn abducted five days ago from the Women and Children Hospital, Abbottabad. SHO Cantonment police station Gulzar Khan said while speaking to the media that 20-year-old Irum Bibi, a resident of Bagnotar, gave birth to a baby boy after a C-section on August 19. Irum was admitted to the gyneacology ward where a woman who introduced herself as another patient’s attendant convinced the mother to let her take the baby to a nearby saint to seek spiritual help. However, the woman did not return with the child. According to the SHO, police have traced the woman, whose real name is Saima, to Banda Said Jalal Khan village and rescued the baby. The accused confessed that she kidnapped the child as she and her husband, Jameel, have been unable to conceive for the past 14 years. Saima said she learnt from hospital sources that a woman had been admitted who had given birth to a baby boy. However, she has refused to name the insiders who helped her whisk the child away.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.