MULTAN, July 14: A labourer who had buried his two-day-old daughter because she was physically deformed was arrested by Khanewal police on Saturday.

According to police, Chand Khan of Chak 19/9-R, father of three boys and a girl, had come from Karachi where he worked as a construction labourer to his village because his wife was going to give birth to a baby.

Katcha Khoo police station’s duty officer Sajjad said the man admitted his wife to a local private hospital where she gave birth to the girl on July 11.

Because of the baby’s physical deformity, he requested a doctor to inject poison to her. The hospital administration advised him that the baby could not survive for long due to her critical condition.

The man took his daughter from the hospital to his village where he made an announcement through the local mosque that she had been born dead. He requested the imam to offer funeral prayers of his daughter.

Before the funeral, the imam noticed that the child was crying and he asked Chand Khan to take her to a hospital.

Later, some locals informed police that the accused had not shift the baby to hospital.

When police reached the village and inquired about the baby, the accused told them that he had buried her in the local graveyard.

Police arrested him under Sections 201 and 302 on the complaint of Muhammad Aslam, an official of the local administration.

Then police official said the accused had confessed to having killed his daughter.

Police submitted an application in the court of area magistrate and civil judge Rahman Elahi for the exhumation of the body and post-mortem.

However, the magistrate ordered police to present the mother, who is still in hospital, before the court on Monday.

Police said that the accused would be presented before the court on Monday.