Srinagar: A five-year-old girl died of multiple injuries three days after she was allegedly thrown off a bridge over the Jhelum river in Srinagar by her 'mentally ill' aunt, a Jammu and Kashmir Police official said on Saturday.
The primary class student passed away at Srinagar's Super Specialty Hospital on Friday. The child had received serious injuries as she crashed onto the concrete base of the pillar after her aunt flung her down. The incident occurred a few meters away from the iconic Ghanta Ghar (clock tower) in Srinagar on the afternoon of December 4.
A police official told ETV Bharat that the child was accompanied by her aunt who allegedly hoicked her into the river from the footbridge over Jhelum in the Abi Guzar area. “The girl could have been rescued if she had fallen into the river but she hit a concrete pier of the bridge and was badly injured,” the official said.
He said that people rushed the girl to the hospital where she battled for her life for three days before succumbing to injuries. One of the passersby said people rushed towards the woman after they noticed her throwing the girl down.
“The girl was retrieved in an unconscious state by locals but was bleeding profusely. The woman attempted to wrestle herself away from the public as she was shouting she would kill herself. But the people stopped her," said one of the onlookers.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Medical Superintendent of SMHS Hospital Dr Tasneem Showkat confirmed the child was admitted to the hospital at first and was operated on by doctors there. Later, she was shifted for specialised treatment to the Super-specialty Hospital where she passed away in the Intensive Care Unit ward, the doctor said.
Medical Superintendent Super-specialty Hospital Dr Rubina Shaheen said the minor girl was admitted to their facility in an unconscious state with polytrauma injuries. The doctors tried their best but she passed away on Friday morning, she said.
Jammu and Kashmir Police have filed a case at Srinagar’s Kothi Bagh Police Station and taken the woman into custody. “Preliminary investigations suggest that the woman is depressed and has been on medication for her mental health. We have sent her for psychiatric consultation today (Saturday) for clinical examination,” the official said.
Several such cases including a mother slitting the throat of her children have occurred earlier as well in Kashmir. This is being attributed to mental illness with one epidemiological study of psychiatric disorders revealing that over 11 percent of the adult population in the valley suffers from mental disorders.
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