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Pakistani hospital staff have been arrested over a “baby-selling” ring snatched newborns from maternity wards.
According to the BBC, a gang swapped newborn babies with the bodies of dead infants in hospitals and then told the parents the child had died.
Nine babies were abducted and sold. Some new mothers were told within hours of giving birth that their child had died.
Five woman and two men, including a nurse and two health workers, were arrested according to the BBC. One baby girl was rescued.
According to the NPR, baby snatching is “fairly common” in Pakistan. In a report on the subject last year, the US broadcaster said that the main reasons that gangs abducted children included wanting to use tiny children to beg on the streets, disputes over inheritance, and to sell the infants to childless couples.
