A couple in Shaheed Benazirabad, Sindh, was denied land to bury their deceased infant daughter because they had married against their families’ wishes.

The residents of Waryam village in Shaheed Benazirabad refused to allow the parents to bury their four-month-old daughter in the local cemetery.

Abdulhamid Mehar had married a woman in March 2023 against the wishes of their families.

He told Aaj News that after the marriage, the villagers were furious and they left the village out of fear. The villagers then held a jirga (tribal council) and banished the couple from the village, forbidding them from returning.

After the marriage, the couple moved from their village of Waryam Mehar, located in Qazi Ahmed tehsil of Shaheed Benazirabad district, to Qazi Ahmed city.

Abdulhamid Mehar worked as a laborer in Qazi Ahmed city to make ends meet.

Four months ago, their daughter Noor was born, but she fell ill recently.

According to the baby’s father, Abdulhamid Mehar, he went to Karachi with his wife and daughter when their daughter’s condition worsened.

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He said they took the baby to a local hospital where the doctor said she had meningitis and was in critical condition. They spent the whole night at the hospital, but she did not recover and died early in the morning.

He said that after the baby’s death, they returned to the village to bury her in the ancestral graveyard, but the villagers and their relatives did not allow them to bury the baby’s body in the graveyard.

Abdulhamid and his wife then protested with the baby’s body and held a press conference, narrating the entire story to the media and appealing to the higher authorities to take notice of the incident so that they could bury their daughter’s body in the ancestral graveyard.

After the press conference, Jamal Shah police sent their soldiers along with the parents to the village to bury the baby, where the baby was buried.

However, according to Abdulhamid, as soon as the burial was over, the villagers came and said that they should leave the village or they would not treat them well, upon which they returned to Qazi Ahmed.

When Aaj News asked him why his relatives did not help him, Abdulhamid said that Waryam Mehar is their ancestral village and the whole village consists of their relatives. These people do not accept love marriage, so no relative comes in between. If someone wants to come, they remain silent for fear of their elders.

When asked why they did not bury the baby in the city where they were living, Abdulhamid said that our parents and other relatives are buried in the same ancestral graveyard, so we also thought of burying the baby in the ancestral graveyard.

Abdulhamid said that the baby who died was named Noor and was four months and three days old. He said it was their first child.

He said that the mother’s condition is very bad due to the death of the baby and she is unconscious.

Her husband Abdulhamid said that she was shown to a local doctor, whose treatment has brought some improvement.