ISLAMABAD: Two years back, Aqsa Akhlaq entered labour and was taken to Benazir Bhutto Hospital, where she gave birth to a healthy boy. Exhausted from the delivery, she fell asleep soon after. When she woke, her son was gone.
She had not even discussed a name for the baby with her husband. The child had allegedly been stolen by three people including a woman named Shakeela, who had a stillbirth on the same day.
The police came and promised to make every effort to reunite mother and child within days. But as days turned to weeks, months, and years, the promise seemed to have been an empty one.
But during the recent weekend, Rawalpindi cops proved that they can deliver justice.
The family was full of joy when, three days ago, the police informed Mehrban Hussain and Aqsa Akhlaq that their son had been recovered.
The family’s ordeal began two years ago, when a woman disguised as a nurse allegedly took the child out of the nursery for inoculation and never returned.
An FIR was registered at the Waris Khan Police Station and despite insisting she would not leave the hospital till her baby was returned, Akhlaq finally relented and went home with her husband.
“It was the saddest moment in our lives, walking back into our house without our child,” Hussain told The Express Tribune.
“The pain was unbearable. Only a mother can feel it,” Akhlaq said, adding that she had lost the most precious thing in her life. “I felt my son was calling me for help.”
Despite the passage of time and the case being turned over to several investigating officers, the couple never lost hope. Hussain visited the police station every day without fail, asking the police if they made any progress.
In the initial stages of the inquiry two years ago, the police, using CCTV camera footage, found that a woman dressed as a nurse had stolen the baby.
“The case had become a challenge for every station house officer and investigation officer. They all took special interest in trying to solve it,” said Waris Khan Station House Officer (SHO) Malik Allah Yar. But it was not till last week that the police made significant headway.
After receiving a tip from a source four days ago, the police raided a house on Girja Road in Chak Jalaldin and recovered a child named Hammad, the SHO said, adding that Shakeela later confessed to the crime.
Shakeela confessed that after learning that her own son was dead, she conspired with another woman, Shamsa Kanwal, and a man named Sifarish Khan, to kidnap Akhlaq’s son, Yar explained.
This incident also led the hospital management to review its security arrangement for the maternity ward. Medical superintendent Dr Asif Qadir Mir said it was the only incident of its kind that took place in the hospital after which they changed rules for gynaecology wards.
“Now a policeman and a ward boy always remain on duty at the gate of the ward. They know each and every staffer and nurse working there and don’t allow anyone, including the parents, to leave the ward without a discharge slip,” he said. He added that CCTV cameras were installed in every corner to control such crimes.
Back at their home in Kallar Syedan, although Hussain and Akhlaq’s nightmare seems over, they do have another urgent issue to address.
What to name their toddler.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 22nd, 2014.
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