ISLAMABAD: A British woman, held in Pakistan on charges of drug smuggling, has been sent back to prison with her newborn daughter after giving birth in a hospital, a British legal group said Sunday.
Khadija Shah, 25, is being held on charges of trying to smuggle heroin worth nearly $5m onto a flight to Britain.
She gave birth to her baby girl Malaika a few weeks ago but was returned from hospital to Adiala prison near the capital Islamabad. The birth was not reported until Sunday.
The baby has had no immunisations and has already had to be hospitalised when she developed severe diarrhoea in the unsanitary prison, said British legal group Reprieve.
“To keep a baby behind bars is truly barbaric. Baby Malaika is weak and suffering from terrible health problems while Khadija faces execution. No mother would wish this scenario on their worst enemy,” Reprieve investigator Sultana Noon said in a statement.
Shah has two other young children. After a period of incarceration when their mother was arrested in May this year, they were freed into the care of a relative.
Mothers are frequently imprisoned with their children while their cases are heard in Pakistan’s congested legal system.
Criminal cases can take years to complete.
reuters
10 militants killed in army operation
in Baraq Tehsil
ISLAMABAD: At least ten suspected militants were killed and six others injured yesterday when Pakistani gunship helicopters pounded suspected militant hideouts in Bara Tehsil of Pakistan’s restive Khyber tribal region, officials said.
The assault followed an earlier clash in the Akakhel area of Bara Tehsil which had left one soldier dead and three injured, the officials added.
According to the officials, armed militants ambushed a security convoy leading to a deadly clash between the militants and security forces. The clash resulted in the death of a soldier while thee others were wounded.
Following the clash, security forces assisted by gunship helicopters targeted militant hideouts in Akakhel area, killing ten militants and injuring six others, the official sources said.
Officials said security forces also destroyed four militant bases and claimed to have arrested 15 suspects as the offensive continued.
Meanwhile, another soldier was also killed in a road side bomb explosion in Tehsil Bara’s Shalobar area during a search operation, the officials added.
Internews
