RAWALPINDI, July 21: A woman, who delivered her first child on Sunday evening at the Benazir Bhutto Hospital, went missing under mysterious circumstances from her hospital bed, leaving her newborn baby girl behind.

Police said Ms Uzma, wife of Mohammad Arshad, went missing from the emergency ward of the hospital soon after delivering the baby.

The husband and relatives started a search immediately, and later at night, the police were also involved. However, the police were unable to start investigation because the Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras installed in the hospital were not functioning.

Arshad Mehmood, a labourer, had recently married Uzma ten months ago and had brought his pregnant wife to the hospital on Sunday morning. Seeing her condition, the doctors had admitted her in the hospital, where Ms Uzma delivered her first baby girl at around 1:30pm.

“She was happy when we brought her to hospital and after the delivery. The newborn was taken to the nursery by the doctors, while my mother, who was staying with my wife in the hospital, left for home to fetch some tea. At that time, my wife went missing,” Arshad Mehmood told Dawn. He said he could not say anything on whether his wife had been abducted by someone from the hospital or something else had happened to her.

When asked whether she had some ‘regrets’ over the birth of a girl, he said, “There was nothing like that. I had no contact with my wife since she delivered the baby as I was not allowed to see her when she was taken to the labour room.”

Police investigating officer (IO) told Dawn that the pregnant woman had gone missing from her hospital bed.

“We were unable to get any help from the CCTV cameras installed in the emergency ward of the hospital as none of those was functioning. However, police have launched a search for the missing woman,” the IO said.

Till the filing of this story, police and relatives of the woman were still searching for her.

Earlier, a new born baby had been abducted from BBH in September 2012.

The kidnapping took place at around 2:00pm after 19-year-old Aqsa, the wife of Meharban Hussain (a farmer of Kalar Syedan) gave birth to her first boy at BBH. The abducted baby has still not been recovered by the police.