RAWALPINDI, Feb 8: City police reunited a stolen newborn baby with his parents for the second time on Thursday after DNA tests confirmed conclusively the baby’s parenthood.

“I’m very happy and very grateful to all those who made this reunion possible. It was so crucial for our lives,” said Tariq Mehmood, the father, who had refused to accept the same baby ten days back.

His refusal had surprised everyone at the press conference arranged to hand him over the baby which police had recovered on January 27 but he acted prudent and insisted on DNA tests to determine whether the child really belonged to him or to another couple.

After all, the two couples had their newborn sons stolen from the Holy Family Hospital (HFH) over the past two months and the child recovered could belong to either of them.

Mehmood’s baby was stolen on December 9 by a woman who told the mother that she was taking her baby to the doctor for a check up and vanished. The next month, on January 7, another newborn - of citizen Gul Mohammad - was stolen from the same hospital.

Police recovered one baby on January 27 from a house in Muslimabad, Pirwadhai, and arrested Ms Rehana and her husband Mohammad Adeel on charges of abduction. The lady however claimed she had “purchased the baby” for Rs5,000.

Since the distressed parents of both the missing babies desired their child back, Tariq Mehmood demanded DNA tests to determine the child’s real parents.

“I could not have accepted the baby without DNA tests as Gul Mohammad and his wife Maryam were as desperate for their baby as me and my wife for ours,” recalled Tariq Mehmood to Dawn.

Blood samples of Tariq Mehmood and his wife Najma Tariq and Gul Mohammad and his wife Maryam were subsequently sent to the Institute of Biomedical Institute in Islamabad for DNA test.

The test report said: “DNA profile of the recently recovered unknown baby matched with the DNA profiles of Couple 1 and concludes that Mr Tariq Mahmood (father) and Najma Tariq (mother) are the biological parents of recently recovered unknown baby.”

That report ended the agony of Tariq and Najma but for Gul and Maryam the ordeal continues as their child is yet to be found.