KARACHI, Nov 13: A young woman believed to be suffering from a mental disorder killed four of her children and wounded two other daughters and her husband in the early hours of Tuesday in Ayub Goth, Gadap town.
Her shaken husband, Abdul Rehman, told Dawn that a scream woke him up at around 2am. “As I came out of the room, I saw my wife Gul Noor bent over my elder daughter, trying to smash in her head with a cleaver,” he said. “She told me, ‘I have killed your children’ and then hit me in the head. After that, my two elder daughters Muneera, 15, and Humaira, 12, both of whom were injured, helped me overpower Gul Noor. ”
She earlier drowned four of her children – Hammad, eight months, Ali Mavia, 4, Mattah Bibi, 7, and Tehmoor, 10 — in the underground water tank. According to a neighbour, she weighed the tank cover down with concrete blocks after having dumped in the children.
According to Abdul Rahman, his neighbour Liaquat was the first to arrive at the scene and attempt to get the children out of the water tank. He managed to recover three bodies. Another neighbour, Manthar Ali, told Dawn that on his fifth attempt he felt the last child’s body which floated upwards minutes later.
As efforts were being made to recover the children’s bodies, Gul Noor sat still and silent as a stone in the room where her husband had sent her, said Manthar Ali. He added that the couple’s eldest child Muneera is a Hafiz-i-Quran and teaches at a nearby madressah.
The police and Edhi services were subsequently informed and the three injured persons were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where they were treated for head wounds. Gul Noor was taken into police custody but had to be taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital after she collapsed.
‘An ideal marriage’
Abdul Rehman, who used to work in a marble factory, is currently employed at a hosiery factory. He told Dawn that his wife had not been feeling well for the past four or five days and that he had taken her to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where she was given medicines. He said that as a result of those medicines, her face had swollen up and he had thought that she had probably taken an overdose. “Despite her condition, she asked me not to take any time off work and assured me that she was alright,” said Rehman, adding that she had been feeling nauseous the night before the violent incidents. Recalling her medical history, Rehman said that in 1992, following the birth of their first child, Gul Noor had suffered some serious mental disorder. She had been in Gilgit, their native town, at the time. Since Rehman worked in Karachi, he brought her to the city for treatment.
According to Abdul Jabbar Nasir, a relative of the family who was present at the tragedy-struck house, her treatment continued for a year and she finally got respite after receiving ‘spiritual treatment’ from somewhere in New Karachi. However, he added that the couple had been very happy together, a view endorsed by Rehman who said several times during the conversation that they had been ideally-married for the past 19 years.
‘Postpartum depression?’
A senior psychiatrist, Dr Syed Ali Wasif, said that the tragedy may have been the outcome of postpartum, or post-childbirth, depression. It frequently goes undetected amongst women in our society, he explained, saying that if directed inwards, the medical condition can lead to suicide while if directed outwards, it can result in the patient killing someone else. He quoted a survey conducted by a team of doctors a few years ago in different Karachi hospitals, which showed that roughly 40 per cent of new mothers suffered from the condition. Gadap town SP Mir Husain Lahri told Dawn that Gul Noor’s statement has not yet been recorded as she was unconscious and admitted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. However, the police have registered an FIR under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, he said while remarking “no sane person or mother can kill her own children.”
KARACHI, Nov 13: A young woman believed to be suffering from a mental disorder killed four of her children and wounded two other daughters and her husband in the early hours of Tuesday in Ayub Goth, Gadap town.
