Couple arrested in Peshawar for selling child to gang

PESHAWAR: The capital city police have arrested a couple who had allegedly sold their child to a recently unearthed ring that used to kidnap and sell infants.

Superintendent of Police Peshawar Cantt Kashif Zulfiqar told reporters that one Imtiaz and his wife were arrested by the East Cantt Police during a raid in Pabbi for selling out their baby to the ring involved in kidnapping of kids from private and government hospitals. “The cops recovered Rs77,000 out of Rs94,000 paid to the couple against sale of their infant,” said the police official.The mother of the infant told some reporters that her kid had been snatched.

The capital city police had busted a gang involved in kidnapping of infants and arrested six criminals, including lady health workers and nurses on Thursday.  The gang is said to be one of the biggest involved in kidnapping of infants for a paltry sum. The head of the ring was identified as Wajiha Yasmin, partner with a doctor in running a maternity home in Larama, on the outskirts of Peshawar.

The woman is said to have kidnapped and sold a number of infants that some nurses and LHVs had lifted from maternity homes.According to police, local nurses and LHVs were members of the gang as they used to steal infants from their hospitals and maternity homes. The accused were identified as Noreen, Nadia, Anjuman, Anwar Pari, Ibn-e-Amin and Nadir Shah.

Senior Superintendent of Police Operations Abbas Majeed Marwat on Friday told reporters that the gang used to kidnap infants from local maternity homes and hospitals and sell them to people against huge amount.

A child, who is said to have been recovered from the gang, was sold for Rs300,000. “The head of the gang has confessed to have sold nine kids so far,” Abbas Majeed told newsmen.There were a number of reports about missing of infants from hospitals and maternity homes in Peshawar and other districts during the last several years. In one such kidnapping of a kid, the then prime minister had to take notice and directed the cops to recover the baby.