Newborn abduction cases: Notices issued to complainant, SHO

Justice Aamer Farooq issued notices to the respondents for a date in office

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notices to the federation, the Ramna SHO, and the complainant in a case pertaining to the theft and sale of newborn children under the cover of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Asif Qureshi had registered a case against the suspects, Tahira Gul and her son Shahzad Ali Zeb, saying that they arranged for newborns to be stolen from hospitals and later sold them for hundreds of thousands of rupees.

Qureshi told the police that he came to know that a Facebook page, “Adopt a Baby in Islamabad” was used to market the children.

Through his sources, Qureshi contacted Zeb, who agreed to sell an eight-day-old baby for Rs310,000. Qureshi then began to suspect that Zeb and his mother were selling stolen babies using their NGO as a cover for the illegality, he alleged.

Gul moved a bail application before the court arguing that she was the office bearer of two organisations — Mother Welfare and Gul Jan Welfare — and that the allegations leveled against her were baseless.

The petition stated that the purpose of the organisation was to promote the welfare of orphans, widows, vulnerable children and people living with AIDS. Gul alleged that the respondents were blackmailing her for huge sums of money.

Gul and her son have been behind bars since their arrests. Earlier, a district and sessions court had dismissed their bail application on the basis of material available on record.

The court had stated that since an infant who was later presented for sale was recovered from her possession, a strong prima facie case existed against her and she was not entitled to the concession of bail.

On February 5, the case of theft and sale of newborns took a new turn when the police arrested three women from Peshawar and Mardan for their alleged involvement in the case.

The police later confirmed that all three women were lady health workers and were arrested on information collected from Gul and Zeb during their interrogations. The official had conjectured that the health workers had easy access in localities and might have “helped the suspects in conducting surveys” to find easy targets.

Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC issued notices to the respondents for a date to be decided later.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.