March 08, 2008	Saturday	Safar 29, 1429

FAISALABAD, March 7: The Mamonkanjan police have registered a case against a couple which has been charged with leaving its six-month-old daughter unattended at a local shrine in the belief that she would be cured of illness.

The parents of the girl (who breathed her last on Thursday), however, dispelled the impression that they committed any such act out of frustration over abject poverty or on the advice of any spiritual healer. They said the girl had died due to illness of months.

The case was registered on the complaint of Amanullah, the uncle of Ihsanullah and Azra, the parents of infant Ayesha.

Amanullah, a resident of Chak 497-GB, submitted an application with the police with the claim that his nephew Ihsan and his wife took their daughter to a local shrine 10 days ago to “rid her of prolonged illness” but left Ayesha there.Knowing about the incident, he said, he rushed to the shrine and brought the girl back home. He asked the police to register a case against Ayesha’s parents. The police instituted a case under section 328 of PPC and arrested Ihsanullah.

A visit to the village gave the other side of the picture, with both parents as well as some other villagers describing the allegations as a story spun against the young couple to exact revenge for familial dispute. They said Ayesha, who had been ailing for many months, died at the clinic of a local doctor, “an MBBS”.

The police sent the body for autopsy the result of which could not be obtained till Friday night.

A police officer told Dawn on the request of anonymity that it was media pressure which forced them to register a case against the parents of the infant. He said a news on TV channels spread panic in the police ranks who had no other choice, though they knew the parents were not to be blamed.