Baby Shireen, abused by adult, leaves hospital for home

Indore: In a small home in Indore, Baby Shireen, her tiny hands in casts, her body burnt with cigarettes, is trying to recover. She was released from a local hospital on Monday evening.  Doctors say the 18-month-old has battered baby syndrome, but will make a full recovery from the horrific physical abuse that was inflicted upon her by an adult.

Shireen's mother, Zarina, has just re-united with her husband and the father of her three children. Months ago, she had eloped to Ajmer with a man named Wahid, taking her children with her.  Wahid tortured Shireen and her brother Imran; their sister Gulab was spared. When Wahid forced Zarina into prostitution a few weeks ago, she decided she had to leave him.  She managed to escape from Ajmer and returned to Indore, where she took her children to hospital for help.

"He (Wahid) used to beat my daughter in my absence. He also broke her to arms. I thought the swelling could have been because of minor beatings, I didn't know the baby's arms were broken. One day when I went out for work, he rubbed beedi (cigarette) buds into my baby's body," Zarina told NDTV.

Wahid has been arrested. "Her mother had stopped eating and was complaining of stomach pain from past two-three. When I asked her to eat she refused. So I hit her. Her daughter was sleeping in between so when I hit her, she got hit too. Now I am accepting that it's a mistake," he said.

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Shireen's parents say they are committed to nursing her back to health and protecting her.  

Reports of her abuse echoed the tragic stories of two young girls - Baby Falak and Baby Afreen -who died in a Delhi and Bangalore hospital respectively- unable to survive the torture they were subjected to.  Baby Falak was abused by a young teen who ended up as her care-giver after the infant was separated from her mother; Baby Afreen was abused by her father, who resented her for not being the son he had always wanted. 

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