A newborn baby has gone missing from Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, and the family and police are giving completely different versions of what happened.
Hasmat Ali, a resident of Shabqadar in Charsadda, told reporters that his child was born at the hospital the previous day. He claimed that hospital staff asked the female relatives to step out of the gynaecology room. When the women returned a short while later, the newborn was nowhere to be seen.
Hasmat said a daily diary entry was made at the hospital police post about the disappearance, but officers refused to register a proper first information report. He added that a nurse in the ward even accused the family of making the baby vanish themselves. “Who would make their own child disappear?” he asked, demanding that the hospital and police recover the infant at once.
An official spokesperson for Lady Reading Hospital confirmed that an internal inquiry is already under way and that the police are investigating the case. The spokesperson expressed hope that those responsible would be identified and traced soon.
Police, however, presented a different account. They said the baby’s mother willingly handed the child over to a woman wearing a white burqa. The woman stayed inside the gynaecology ward for nearly three hours, and the baby’s maternal aunt was also present at the time. According to the police, the mother was asked to register a formal complaint but refused, saying it was a personal family matter.
Meanwhile, video footage obtained by media shows a woman carrying a newborn out of the hospital premises. The investigation is still continuing, and both the hospital administration and police have promised to look into every angle of the case.
The incident has left the family distressed and raised serious questions about security and monitoring inside one of Peshawar’s largest public hospitals. Relatives continue to demand the safe return of the baby while authorities work to establish the full facts.
