Islamabad: The Pakistan Police launched a manhunt for a father who killed his 7-days-old daughter just because he wanted his newborn to be a son. The father who has been arrested now was identified as Shahzaib Khan. He had escaped after firing several shots at the newborn girl.
The incident happened in the Mianwali city of Pakistan’s Punjab province when Khan pointed a gun at his family members to hand over the baby girl ‘Jannat’ to him. He then shot five bullets in her body leading to her instant death.
The Police registered a case on the basis of a complaint lodged by the girl’s maternal uncle Hidayatullah Khan and arrested him on the charges of murder. Hidayatullah Khan said to the Dawn that he tried to save the child but Shahzaib had pointed a gun at all the family members. “He had pointed the gun at me and the other relatives and threatened to shoot us if we moved closer”, he was quoted.
Shahzaib Khan had been married to Mashal Fatima two years ago and their daughter was born a week ago. His wife Fatima was quoted saying that Shahzaib was enraged when their daughter was born and left the house for a few days. He returned and murdered the girl. She added that he first hit her and cursed their daughter. Later, he pulled a revolver and fired rounds into her body.
The incident created outrage on social media with people condemning the killing as ‘barbaric’ and ‘brutal’. Tehseen Qasim, one of the social media users said that the only solution to stop the brutality was hanging such culprits publicly.
In some parts of Pakistan, the birth of baby girls is considered an insult to the manhood of their fathers. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Gender Gap Index, Pakistan stands at the 153rd position out of a total of 156 countries.