In a shocking incident, a newborn baby was found abandoned at Nowhatta locality here on Friday. Though the locals rushed the male baby to nearby hospital, but he was declared brought dead there.
The abandoned baby was found near Bahuddin Ganj Baksh Park at Nowhatta. Blood stains on a carry bag are still fresh near one of the small gates of Malkha— one of the largest graveyards in Kashmir.
“The baby was here…there was blood oozing from its body,” a group of children playing in the park said. “But the baby was rushed to hospital by elders,” they said.
Ajaz Ahmad Bhat, a gunny bag dealer said when he went to open his shop at 8:30 am, all he could see was “sea of people”.
“There was commotion near my shop. People were talking about abandoned baby. When I jostled my way through the crowd, I saw a healthy male baby with brownish eyes. Somebody had put his pheran under him. There was blood oozing from his right hand. He was dragged to the spot from some 30 meters, perhaps by dogs,” said Bhat.
Seconding him, Raju, a labourer, who also works at one of the gunny bag shops said, “I was terrified to see the abandoned baby,” he said.
During the conversation, an elderly Ghulam Hassan intervened. Hassan introduced himself as a laborer who also works at one of the gunny bag shops. “The doomsday is near. Whosoever has done this, the person is sure to have invited wrath of Allah on himself. Earlier, there was a concern about female newborns being abandoned. Now here is the case of a male newborn being abandoned to die. How low we have stooped morally? This needs introspection,” said Bhat.
Police has registered an FIR no 5/ 2018 under section 318 RPC into the case and started investigation.
Superintendent of Police, north city, Sajjad Ahmad Shah, said the culprits have taken the advantage of overnight drizzle. “We would have caught the persons involved in it. Due to dampness because of overnight drizzle, we couldn’t use sniffer dogs in this case. We took baby into our custody. He was taken to JLNM hospital. He was already dead. Later, we handed the baby to local Auqaf Committee for burial,” the SP said. “Dogs had not touched the baby at all. We will soon nab the culprits,” he added.
However, like Bhat, SP Shah is also in tizzy over the case. “There used to be cases of people abandoning babies inside hospitals and shrines. This is first case probably when baby has been abandoned near a graveyard,” said Shah.
Locals said baby was buried at a portion of graveyard meant for unnamed babies.