Baby girl abandoned outside RAK mosque

RAS AL KHAIMAH // A baby girl was abandoned in a cardboard box outside the door of a mosque in the town of Jazirat al Hamra. The baby, about seven days old and wrapped in blankets, was found Saturday night by men leaving the seaside Salem bin Attiq mosque after the Isha prayer. A police sergeant at the mosque took the baby to the local police station. She was then taken to Saqr Hospital, where she was found to be in good health.

"After prayers, the baby was there. We heard her crying softly; she was so small," said Sultan Ahmad, 40, one of the men who found the baby. Holding up a photo of a healthy girl in pink blankets, he said, "This baby is beautiful. The person who did this has no heart." The abandoned girl is getting full support from the community. "We wanted to take her and have the privilege of raising a child," said Sultan Abdulla, a man from the village in his 60s, adding that it was an honour for Muslims to raise an orphan.

"She's in good condition and everything is fine," said Major Marwan al Mansoori of the RAK Police. "It's not a unique case, it happens maybe once or twice every year." The public have been asked to provide any information they may have about the girl to the Jazirat al Hamra station or the RAK Police Criminal Investigation Department. The baby will be kept at the hospital during the investigation.

Earlier this month, a Filipina in her early 30s and a Pakistani man were arrested for abandoning their baby on the corniche in Ajman. The two face charges of adultery and endangering a child's life, which each carry a minimum sentence of one year in jail. @Email:[e-mail]