Punjab police on Thursday arrested a man suspected of shooting dead his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a boy, a case that has triggered an outpouring of public anger.
The baby named Jannat, which means heaven in Urdu, was shot multiple times on Monday, said police in the central city of Punjab's Mianwali.
The suspect was arrested in a nearby district, police officer Inam-ur-Rehman said in a statement.
Human rights groups say 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.
Commenting on the incident, the National Commission on Status of Women's (NCSW) Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar said that the sole purpose of killing the child was her gender, adding that the law enforcement authorities will leave no stoned unturned to catch the culprit.
A cold-hearted man in Mianwali, Punjab, who wanted to have a son, brutally killed his seven-day-old daughter by shooting her, media reported on Monday ( March 7), citing the police.
Per the report, the tragic incident happened in the Noor Pura neighbourhood of Mianwali, where the father killed the infant by opening fire on her just because she was a girl.
The police said that the man fled after committing the crime. A first information report (FIR) of the incident was filed by the deceased child's maternal grandfather.
Commenting on the incident, the National Commission on Status of Women's (NCSW) Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar said that the sole purpose of killing the child was her gender, adding that the law enforcement authorities will leave no stoned unturned to catch the culprit.
"The protection of human rights, especially women's rights, is very important in our country," Bakhtiar said.