Mianwali: Police arrest man suspected of killing seven-day-old daughter

• Baby named Jannat was shot multiple times on Monday.
• Suspect, the girl's father, was arrested in a nearby district.
• Case has triggered an outpouring of public anger.

LAHORE: Punjab police on Thursday arrested a man suspected of shooting dead his seven-day-old baby girl because he wanted his first-born to be a boy, a case that has triggered an outpouring of public anger.

The baby named Jannat, which means heaven in Urdu, was shot multiple times on Monday, said police in the central city of Punjab's Mianwali. 

The suspect was arrested in a nearby district, police officer Inam-ur-Rehman said in a statement.

Read more: Mianwali father wishing for a son shoots newborn daughter

Human rights groups say girls and women face regular violence for a variety of reasons in Pakistan, which sits three spots above the bottom of the World Economic Forum's 2021 gender Gap Index.

Commenting on the incident, the National Commission on Status of Women's (NCSW) Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar said that the sole purpose of killing the child was her gender, adding that the law enforcement authorities will leave no stoned unturned to catch the culprit.