GUJRAT: Police on Saturday arrested a woman for kidnapping a newborn girl from the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH); however, the baby girl could not be recovered since she died after falling sick.

The suspected woman said she had kidnapped the baby to get rid of taunts of her in-laws for not having children even after her second marriage around seven years ago.

A spokesman for Gujrat police said a baby girl born to Iqra Shahbaz and Shahbaz Bhatti of Shahdaula Road was kidnapped from the ABSTH by an unidentified woman some days back.

The Civil Lines police had lodged a case and launched the investigation. The CCTV cameras showed the suspect, later identified as Shazia Mushtaq, continued changing motorcycle-rickshaws on her way to the village Warpal Chatha of Wazirabad.

The police traced her and she confessed to committing the crime, revealing that she had kidnapped the baby to get rid of the taunts by her in-laws as she was unable to conceive.

Shazia said the baby was very ill and could not survive. After her death, the baby was laid to rest in the village graveyard in presence of other family members after offering funeral prayers.

In another blind murder case of an old woman at village Hassan Pathan, the police arrested three suspects, including two women.

Fazalat Kausar was found murdered in her room on July 12 and a case was registered with the Kakrali Police Station. The police took her neighbours, Awais Mushtaq Butt, Suman and Zarqa, into custody who confessed to killing the old woman through asphyxiation to snatch her gold earrings.

The suspects were friends and they wanted to flee their homes but did not have enough money. They hatched a plan to take the gold earrings of their neighbour after killing her.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024