RAWALPINDI: A woman confessed to murdering her four-and-a-half year old nephew by drowning him in a bucket of water in the Ratta Amral area.

On July 12, Haider Ali who had gone missing from his grandfather’s home was found dead in Ratta Amral area, the next day. It was assumed that the child had drowned in a nearby nullah until the woman’s four-year-old son Siraj Ali told the police during interrogation that his mother, Saba Nasreen, had murdered his cousin.

Nasreen, who is 23-year-old, lived with her husband and two children in a compound shared with her husband’s parents and his brother Shahid Mehmood’s family. Shahid Mehmood had three children including Haider Ali.

In a statement recorded with the police, Nasreen confessed to killing the boy out of jealousy as she felt her father-in-law favoured Haider Ali over her son Siraj Ali. She was also not on good terms with her sister-in-law, Haider Ali’s mother.

On July 12, Nasreen told Haider she was taking Siraj for a check-up and asked him to come along. She took the boys to the clinic where only one male nurse was on duty and asked if they could use the bathroom.

She then locked herself and the children in the bathroom, filled a bucket with water and killed her nephew by forcing his head into the water.

The victim’s father, Shahid Mehmood, told Dawn that his sister-in-law’s actions are truly shocking. He said that even four-year-old Siraj tried to stop his mother.

Nasreen told the investigating officer that she walked out of the clinic, carrying the child’s body and no one noticed. She threw the corpse in the nullah and went to her parent’s house to wash up as her clothes and shoes were covered in mud because it was a rainy day.

When she returned to her in-laws’ house, the family were already searching for the missing boy. Shahid Ali told Dawn that after witnessing the murder and the disposal of the body, four-year-old Siraj Ali became very frightened and was in great distress before he shared his story with the police.

Psychiatrist Dr Abdul Ghafoor at Benazir Bhutto Hospital told Dawn that emotional instability in people like Saba Nasreen, compels them to carry out such acts without realising the consequences of their actions.

He said that often in such cases, circumstances during childhood contribute towards emotionally unstable personalities.

Meanwhile, the investigating officer told Dawn that the woman has been in police custody for three days and police are investigating whether anyone else abetted the murder.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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