PESHAWAR, May 18: A teenage girl from tribal area has been arrested for killing her illegitimate baby in a local hospital. An FIR was registered against her at the Kabuli police station on Wednesday under sections 302 and 338 of Pakistan Penal Code and 5/10 Hudood Ordinance.

The 14-year-old accused told Dawn at the women’s police station lock-up that she had killed her baby “for fear of her own life”.

“I was not aware of what was happening to me. I tried to get rid of the child to save myself”, she said.

She said that the father of the baby a friend of her Brother, had apparently fled the country.

Dr Abdul Hameed Afridi, deputy medical superintendent of the Lady Reading Hospital, said that the girl had been brought to the casualty ward on Tuesday evening in a private ambulance from Mohmand agency.

The girl who was accompanied by four men and a woman, All members of her family, was complaining of ‘acute abdominal’ pain.

She was taken to the surgical ward where doctors suspected a mass in the abdomen. She was unmarried and, therefore, an ultrasound test was recommended.

According to staff of the hospital, the girl went to the toilet and remained there for about an hour during which she gave birth to a baby boy weighing 3Kg.

“She came out of the toilet bleeding profusely. This created suspicions among the staff on duty,” a nurse said.

Dr Afridi said that when the nurse went to the toilet she saw blood there. Soon the nurse and the sweeper found a baby in the commode.

The girl appeared to have killed the baby by strangulating him with her duppata and then tried to flush him down in the commode, Dr Afridi and other hospital staff said.

After a check-up, she was taken to the gynaecological ward for post-natal treatment, Dr Afridi said.

The child’s bofy was sent for post-mortem.

He said that security officials informed police about the incident. Police registered an FIR against the girl and arrested her and her relatives on Wednesday morning.

The girl who hails from the conservative Mohmand tribal region, said she was scared that her parents would kill her if they came to know about the incident.

Her aunt who was accompanying her said that they never suspected that the girl was pregnant. According to her she had committed a terrible mistake. She should have told us the whole thing, she said.

Police have also booked the girl’s brother, two uncles, a cousin and the aunt who had accompanied her to the hospital.