Mother “confesses” killing of 4 month old child “due to extreme poverty”

Gul Hammad Farooqi

Chitral, January 11: The mother of a 4 month old child, slaughtered on Sunday, has divulged to the police that she herself had killed the child. The startling revelation came after earlier claims by the same woman that two men had broken into her house and killed the child, while she escaped, Inspector Saltanat, Ayun Valley SHO told this scribe.

According to details a woman in Ayun Valley of Chitral had complained to the police that two men broke into her house and tried to rape her. She reported to the police that she was successful in escaping the house but the two men killed her child.

Police started investigation into the case and during earlier interrogation it was revealed by the woman that she herself was behind the barbaric murder. According to Inspector Saltanat Khan, the woman said that she was faced with extreme poverty and killed her child to decrease the economic burden. She hails from the upper Dir area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, currently settled in Ayun Valley of Chitral.

The woman, reportedly, has married twice. Her first husband had died in a road accident after which she was married to the younger brother of her first husband, as is the culture in many of the Pakistani societies. She has children from her first husband as well as from her present husband, according to police.

After her confession, the woman, whose name is being withheld for privacy, was sent to jail by a local court on judicial remand.

Local people have lauded the police’s role in unearthing of the facts.