Pakistan Gender News Voice of Gender News From Pakistan
Iqbal Khwaja
THATTA: Police pressure on villagers to identify the mother of an “unwanted child” led to the killing of a 16-year-old unmarried woman in a brutal manner.
The case came to light when doctors examined the body of the woman after she was brought to the Civil Hospital, Makli, here late on Sunday night.
A gynaecologist and another lady doctor, who carried out the post-mortem, told reporters that the body had burn injuries. Most probably, hot water was used to torment the girl, the doctors added.
They said the check-up suggested that the woman had given birth to a baby.
The body was brought by police from the coastal village of Abdul Karim Parhiyar. A few days ago SHO Nawaz Bhao of Gharo police station brought an unmarried girl from the village to the hospital for a medical check-up, alleging that she had given birth to a baby whose body had been seen floating in a drain by a shepherd.
The SHO told reporters that an FIR under section 329 PPC (giving illegitimate birth and concealing facts) had been registered on Feb 23 against an unidentified girl and the police were in search of the mother since then.
The police managed to trace the girl`s family and successfully persuaded the elders to place her in their custody.
However, medical check-up revealed that the girl was a virgin. The police escorted the girl along with her parents back to the village.
The SHO accused the elders of duping the police by placing the younger girl in their custody in order to shield her sister who had “in fact, delivered the baby”.
Police kept pressuring the family to hand over the “unwed mother” to them.
But before handing over, the police alleged, the family tortured the girl to make it impossible to find out whether she had delivered a baby. “The girl died because of the torture,” according to police.
On Sunday night, the police brought the body from the same village. Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Lal Mir Shah, said it was “a clear case of homicide”. “Poisoning or strangulation cannot be ruled out.”
