Infant dies instead as attackers shoot at father in Manghopir for sheltering girl

An eight-month-old baby girl was shot dead at her house by unidentified persons in the Manghopir locality.

The incident took place at a small house located near Garam Chashma within the limits of the Manghopir police station. The infant girl died on the spot. Her body was taken to Abbassi Shaheed Hospital from where the family took it away without medico-legal formalities.

Commenting on the incident, police officials said that the shooters apparently wanted to kill the baby girl’s father but mistakenly shot and killed her.

Family members of the victim along with scores of relatives and neighbouring people held a protest over the incident. The protesters condemned the infant girl’s killing and demanded the immediate arrests of the culprits.

The eight-month-old deceased was identified as Khadija, daughter of Mehmood Chandio. Her father hails from Kambar-Shahdatkot district who recently returned to Karachi from Saudi Arabia. The deceased was the youngest daughter of Chandio who has another daughter.

According to the inquiry officer of the case, Sub-Inspector Saqlain, unidentified persons entered the victim’s house, opened fire and escaped. “They opened fire through the window while standing on a courtyard of the house,” said the officer. “One of the bullets hit and killed the victim.”

The officer said that apparently the deceased infant was not the target of the culprits as they wanted to kill her father.

Sub-Inspector Saqlain explained that a girl had eloped in Kambar-Shahdadkot whose family suspected that the victim’s father was involved in her elopement. “The family of the girl who eloped suspected that Chandio gave her a shelter,” the inquiry officer said. “They [the culprits] had arrived apparently to kill Chandio but mistakenly shot and killed the infant girl due to darkness.”

The victim’s father claimed that he had been receiving death threats from some people in his hometown and he had also approached the police over the matter but the police did not take any necessary action.

As a police team reached the crime scene to carry out investigations, they collected two empty shells of a .30bore pistol which were sent to the forensic division for ballistics cross matching.

No case has been registered yet as the police officials said that the family of the deceased told the police that they would have consultation with their elders before registering a case.