HYDERABAD, Sept 5: Police on Wednesday claimed to have established identity of the woman who had kidnapped the newly-born baby girl, Dua, from Bhittai Hospital on Aug 19.

A spokesman for the district police told Dawn that one Safia had kidnapped the two-day-old baby from the hospital and the fact had been confirmed by Feroza Begum, the baby’s mother.

He said that Ms Safia’s house in Karachi had been cordoned off by police and a special team from Hyderabad had been sent to arrest her and recover the baby.

The baby, born on Aug 18, was kidnapped from Shah Bhittai Hospital in Latifabad on Aug 19 when the mother, Feroza, had gone to lavatory and her mother-in-law was busy preparing tea.

Police had arrested one Sharif and the hospital’s watchman, Nasir, after the baby’s father, Nadeem Yusufzai alias Bhoora, lodged a case.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo motu notice of the incident on Aug 20 and sought progress report from the district and sessions judge Hyderabad.

Later, Hyderabad police announced a reward of Rs50,000 for helping find the baby after Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry expressed his dissatisfaction over the pace of investigation.

Under the court directives the police were submitting progress report on the case to the PPO of Sindh to be submitted to Supreme Court Registrar. Earlier, the report was being submitted to the sessions judge of Hyderabad.

WORKSHOP: In order to bring about improvement in the educational system in the country, it was extremely necessary to improve the assessment system and train teachers in this area to increase their professional capabilities.

This was stated by the director Bureau of Curriculum Sindh, Mr Mushtaq Ahmed Shahani who was delivering an inaugural speech at a three-week Sindhi, Urdu and Mathematics National Item Writing workshop at a local hotel here on Wednesday.

He said maximum participation of teachers in the assessment work was necessary to improve the standard of education.

Speaking on the occasion, the coordinator Islamabad National Project, Syed Kamaluddin said that the workshop was a prelude to the national assessment course for class-IV and VIII teachers which will be held next year.

He said this assessment project will become a permanent feature of the federal education ministry.

A representative of British Council and resident technical adviser, Dr Parveen Hassan in her speech said that the existing educational system has encouraged rote learning among students and therefore they do not apply their minds in learning.

She said time has come to change the syllabus and text books to encourage creative and critical abilities in the students.