SAHIWAL: The police rescued a kidnapped newborn baby in Faisalabad city on Wednesday, who had been kidnapped by a woman from the Gynae Ward of the Government Haji Qayyum Hospital on the night of Saturday night.

District Police Officer (DPO) Faisal Shehzad handed over the child to the family on the hospital premises.

He said the police had arrested three women and four men in connection with the case. Main suspect Nabeela, her brother Ihsan and mother Bushra Bibi are in police custody.

The police confirmed that none of the hospital’s medical staff was involved in the abduction of the child.

The DPO expressed regret over the failure of the hospital management to adhere to security standard operating procedures related to CCTV cameras. He said several CCTV cameras were non-functional, while others lacked recorded footage. To address the issue, 16 police teams were formed.

Police sources said that after taking the child from the ward, Nabeela initially went to Lahore and subsequently to Chiniot and Faisalabad, her hometown.

Nabeela from Nighban Colony, Faisalabad, is married to a man from Sahiwal city. Due to medical reasons, she cannot conceive another child, and she already has a daughter.

Reportedly, Nabeela’s husband intended to remarry in the pursuit of having a male child. Nabeela, along with her brother and mother, planned to kidnap a baby boy from the hospital. Initial plans to take a baby from a private hospital failed due to security concerns. They targeted the Gynae Ward of Qayyum Hospital, given its poor security.

The DPO urged patience from the kidnapped baby’s family, citing their aggressive behaviour as leading to security-related issues for the hospital’s medical staff.

Hafiz Zubair, father of the kidnapped child, and Hafiz Abdul Sattar Naqashbandi, baby’s grandfather, along with JUI-F district leaders, staged a protest camp outside the hospital for three days.

The police detained the medical staff for three days on hospital premises due to their involvement mentioned in the FIR lodged with the city police station.

The DPO also spoke about the family’s negligence in leaving the baby unattended in the ward.

RAID: The District Agriculture Department’s plant protection wing conducted a raid on a private pesticide company’s warehouse, recovering counterfeit pesticides worth Rs4 million packaged under the names of various international brands.

Muhammad Haider, assistant director, told reporters that the company, had been employing fake registration numbers and pesticide details to package locally produced pesticides in international brand packaging.

The department, in collaboration with Ghala Mandi Police, arrested Azam Sohail, Rashid Mahmood and Sajid Bashir.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2023