Why Don't We Protest?

[momna gull]

KARACHI, Dec 18: The bodies of two newborn babies — a boy and a girl — were found at two separate places in Korangi on Friday.

Both the bodies were buried in the Mewashah graveyard by a charity organisation without any legal proceedings or formalities, officials and witnesses said.

The area police claimed that they came to know about the presence of the bodies through Chhipa volunteers, who approached the police station with the information.

They quoted the volunteers as saying that they found one body near a government dispensary next to the Korangi Crossing and the other at a place near the Juma Bazaar Ground in Sector A of the town.

Surprisingly, there appeared to be no entry of the incidents at any of three police stations covering the areas.

“Some area residents informed the Chhipa service about the presence of the dead babies at the specified places,” said an official at one of the three police stations — Zaman Town, Ibrahim Hyderi and Korangi Industrial Area.

“There was no need for our patrolling party to supervise the activity of lifting the bodies and taking them away for burial,” he said, adding that both the bodies seemed to have been dumped by the one individual or group.

It was the third incident of its kind in recent weeks. Earlier this month, two dead baby girls were found within the remit of the Mahmoodabad and Ferozabad police stations.

The police said that it was not customary to register such incidents as hardly ever any query was made by their high-ups about such happenings.

“If we register these incidents as criminal cases, it may involve lengthy procedures to follow,” said a senior police official, explaining that an investigation would have to be initiated and the investigators would need to seek an autopsy of the bodies, trace out the victims’ family links and proceed further in line with the defined rules.”

While the police maintain no record of such incidents, the charity organisations functioning in the city say that the number of such incidents was rising every month.

“This year alone, we have buried dozens of (newborn babies’) bodies,” said Ramzan Chhipa, chief of the Chhipa Welfare Association. “We started a campaign about a year ago to convince people not to kill their unwanted babies as we are ready to accept them without disclosing the identity of their parents.”

He said the campaign succeeded to a certain extent, but it could not bring the number of such incidents down significantly. He said several of such bodies were often disfigured or mauled by stray animals, birds or insects and even burnt when they were spotted. Most bodies were wrapped or packed in plastic bags and found dumped in garbage dumps, sewers, drains or filthy narrow lanes.

Iqtidar Ali Hashmi, a prominent criminal lawyer, wondered how the police could ignore such incidents, which could be registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 329 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Section 329 says: “Whoever, by secretly burying or otherwise disposing of the body of a child whether the child dies before or after or during birth, intentionally conceals or endeavours to conceal the birth of such child, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”