QUETTA: Four girls drowned after their “mentally-challenged” mother threw them into a water tank at their house in Sumungli road area here on Thursday.

Police said that after throwing her four minor daughters into the water tank, the woman also jumped into it.

“We received bodies of four girls of between two and 10 years,” said a doctor at the Civil Hospital, Quetta, adding their mother was brought to the hospital in an unconscious state.

The woman’s condition was said to be serious.

Sources said the deceased were daughters of Mohammad Khan, 50, who lived in a house in Sumungli road area with his wife and children.

They said that two of the girls, who studied at a nearby school, returned home at around 2pm. Soon afterwards their mother, Maryam Bibi, threw her four daughters into the water tank and then jumped into it.

Police subsequently recovered the girls and their mother from the tank and took them to the hospital, where the four minor children were declared dead.

Mohammad Khan, who runs a shoe store in the area, told police that his wife was suffering from mental ailments since long.

“Not long ago she jumped into a nearby nullah but was rescued by some people,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016