Manhunt launched for Pakistani father who ‘shot dead seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted a boy’

Father is accused of killing infant daughter and fleeing after taking her from mother

The World Economic Forum’s 2021 Gender Gap Index showed the country at the 153rd position out of a total 156 countries (AFP via Getty Images)

A manhunt has been launched by Pakistani police for a man who allegedly shot dead his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a son.

The incident took place on Monday in the Mianwali city of Pakistan’s Punjab province where the father, identified as Shahzaib Khan, escaped after firing multiple shots at the infant, according to police officials.

The baby girl — named Jannat, meaning “heaven” in Urdu — was hit by five bullets and died instantly, Mianwali police officer Hayatullah Khan said.

“We are trying to arrest the accused, who is still at large,” Mr Khan said.

Hidayatullah Khan, the girl’s maternal uncle, has lodged a formal police complaint against the father over the killing.

“A baby girl was born... he was infuriated,” Mr Khan said, referring to the father.

Mr Khan told the Dawn newspaper that the other family members who witnessed the killing were threatened by the suspect who allegedly pointed a gun at them before asking his wife to hand over the girl.

The girl’s brutal murder has sparked outrage on social media in Pakistan as many condemned the killing as “barbaric” and “brutal”.

“This is beyond barbaric, brutal and vicious. The only solution to stop this brutality is hanging him publicly,” Twitter user Tehseen Qasim said.

“I’m disgusted to the core. I feel terribly for the mother. Look at the beautiful daughter she had. Women lead the world, it’s 2022 FFS. #Mianwaliincident #mianwali #WomenDay2022,” wrote Misbah Munir, another Twitter user.

Aurat Azadi March, a women’s collective that holds annual rallies against the violation of women’s rights in Pakistan, said the incident came right before International Women’s Day and showed the country’s reality in terms of the treatment of women and girls.

“We need to wake up to the reality of this country and fight against such injustice and oppression,” the collective said in a tweet.

The south Asian nation is one of the poorest performers in the world in terms of gender parity.

The World Economic Forum’s 2021 Gender Gap Index showed the country at the 153rd position out of a total 156 countries, in part because of how gender-based violence has worsened over the years.

In the last two years, more than 500 bodies of infants have been found dumped in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, with the majority of them being girls, according to Faisal Edhi, head of the Edhi Foundation, the city’s largest social welfare charity group.

Additional reporting by agencies