Pakistani police have arrested a man who is accused of burying his newborn daughter alive because she was physically deformed and had "abnormal" features.
The man, identified by police as Chand Khan, initially told relatives the child was dead after seeing his daughter for the first time.
He even organised a funeral service according to Shamshad Khalid, the police chief of Kacha Khoh - near the city of Khanewal in the eastern Punjab province, reports Press Association.
Shockingly, the child started crying during the service, and although the presiding cleric told the father to take his daughter to the hospital, he instead buried her, according to police.
Authorities were alerted after the man, who has four other children, was seen taking the baby to the graveyard. Police then raided his house and arrested him, charged with murder.
The man's wife was still at the hospital when the baby was buried and reportedly had no idea what her husband had planned to do.
A doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Kacha Khoh, said the baby was healthy and alive after her birth but had a fairly large head and "abnormal" features.
Mohammed Farooq continued: "I am a doctor at the same hospital where this child was born. This man came to me yesterday with a request that I should do something to dispose of his child, but I snubbed him and said get out.
"No one has the right to kill anyone because of his or her physical deformity."
Authorities will now perform an autopsy on the child's body and Mr Khan could face the death penalty if found guilty of killing his daughter.
Culled from 7news
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