Thick Blood: Child buried alive on pir’s instructions

MULTAN: A man and his wife buried their adopted child alive on a pir’s instructions in Muzafargarh. Jatoi police have arrested the pir and are looking for the couple. Police said that the pir had told the couple that they could have their own children if they “sacrificed” their adopted one. He told them to bathe the child in perfume to “please the spirits”. The child’s biological parents, who were related to the couple, told police that they had smelled the perfume on the child and that she had been complaining about feeling unwell for several days. She had recurring nightmares, they said. On Friday, a maulvi held the child’s funeral prayers and buried her. Police said they had drugged the child before burying her. Her biological parents informed the police, who “exhumed” the child and pronounced her alive.  The child recognised the pir and the police arrested him. SHO Aslam Khan said a case had been registered against the pir and the couple.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2015.