LAHORE: A minor girl was severely tortured by her stepmother in the Shahdara area. Nine-year-old Maryam was rushed to the Children’s Hospital with a swollen face and multiple injuries on various parts of her body. Her condition was described as serious. Maryam’s mother, Rabia, of Abdullah Park, told the police that she had left for Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah about a week ago. Before departing, she had asked Maryam’s stepmother, Shaista, to take care of her daughter in her absence. Upon her return on Sept 21, Rabia learned that her daughter had been hospitalised in critical condition several days earlier. She went to the Children’s Hospital, where she found Maryam in the Intensive Care Unit with severe facial injuries. Doctors informed Rabia that her daughter also bore deep wounds from physical abuse on various parts of her body. Maryam told her mother that her stepmother had beaten her with an iron rod and other sharp-edged weapons over minor household issues. The Shahdara police registered a case against the suspect.