Shahzaib Khan, a Pakistani father has allegedly shot his seven-day-old baby girl to death.
Gatekeepers News reports that Police have arrested a Pakistani father on suspicion of killing his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a boy.
According to Police, the newborn baby named Jannat – meaning ‘heaven’ in Urdu – was shot five times on Monday at her home in the central city of Mianwali.
According to reports, the suspect, identified as Shahzaib Khan, allegedly entered his house and ordered his wife to hand over the baby to him and shot the week-old baby dead.
Khan who has been married for two years fled the scene but was arrested in a nearby district on Thursday.
In some parts of Pakistan, tribal customs mean that baby girls can be considered an insult to manhood.
The baby’s maternal uncle, Hidayatullah, launched a formal complaint against the suspect for the killing.
Hidayatullah while referring to the father, said “A baby girl was born…he was infuriated.”
He noted that Shahzaib had not returned to the family home after discovering his wife had given birth to a baby girl and refused to accept her.
According to Hidayatullah, the suspect entered the family home where relatives had gathered and ordered his wife to hand over Jannat to him.
‘The suspect took the girl into his hands and shot her dead,’ he added.
He further claimed that he had tried to take the baby away from Shahzaib but the suspect had pointed the gun at him and the other relatives and threatened to shoot them if they moved closer.
According to human rights groups, girls and women face regular violence for a variety of reasons in Pakistan, which sits three spots above the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s 2021 gender Gap Index.
