– Killing of infants on the rise in Pakistan
By Reza Sayah, CNN
Karachi, Pakistan (CNN) — At a morgue in Pakistan’s largest city, five linen pouches — each the size of a loaf of bread — line the shelf of a walk-in freezer. Wrapped inside each small sack is the corpse of an infant.
The babies are victims of what one relief agency calls Pakistan’s worst unfolding tragedy — the killing and dumping of newborns.
“Sometimes they hang them and sometimes they kill by the knife, and sometimes we find bodies which have been burned,” said Anwar Kazmi, a manager at Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest privately run social service and relief agency.
Records at Edhi Foundation show more than 1,200 newborns were killed and dumped in Pakistan last year, an increase of about 200 from the previous year.
Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage.
Statistics show roughly nine out of 10 are baby girls, which families may consider too costly to keep in a country where women frequently are not allowed to work. …
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