KARACHI, Nov 4: A newborn boy was stolen from the National Institute of Child Health on Friday, prompting the family to cry for help and threaten to book the NICH staff for the child theft.

The child was taken away after he was born in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, police said.

“The baby had a breathing problem. So he was taken to the NICH, where after an examination by the doctors, he was kept in an incubator. However, when the father went to see his child at 11.30am, he was shocked to discover that the boy had gone missing,” a duty officer at the Saddar police station said.

The father, Rajab Ali, blamed the hospitals administration for the newborn’s disappearance and threatened to book the staff for the incident.

However, a case (FIR 338/2011) under Section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered on a complaint of Mr Ali against unknown suspects at the Saddar police station.

Doctors at the NICH were also shocked over the baby’s theft despite security staff having been posted at various points.

A senior doctor seeking anonymity said he had seen the newborn under treatment at around 10.30am on Friday and later came to know that he had gone missing.

“It is a rare happening at the NICH and I fail to understand as to how it could happen,” he added.

Soon after learning about the baby theft, staff members began a search for the baby in various sections of the NICH, but failed to trace him.

Prof Jamal Raza, director of the NICH, confirmed that the newborn, who was shifted from the JPMC in the morning, was getting treatment for a respiratory problem in the nursery section. Sometime around noon some crying relatives of the baby complained that the baby was not in his place, he said, adding that the provincial secretary of the health department had also inquired about the incident and constituted a departmental committee to look into the reported baby theft.

Though there was no CCTV camera installed in the nursery, the footage available at the other points in the hospital have also been examined to find a clue to the theft, or the thieves, said an administrative staff member, adding that police also visited the NICH but did not detain any of the staffers for questioning.