Child in a graveyard in rural pakistan (Getty Paula Bronstein)
Child in a graveyard in rural Pakistan.

The body of a baby was stolen by grave robbers use in black magic ceremonies, a mother claims.

Aneela Afzal's son Eamon lived for just four hours after he was born three months premature in a car as she rushed to hospital, reports the Birmingham Mail.

The child was buried in Pakistan, alongside generations of Aneela's family, but thieves raided the graveyard and stole the body.

"Things like that happen every day in that country but I never expected it would happen to my baby.
"One theory was that the body had been taken to be used for black magic. I don't really know what to do now."

The 24-year-old said that the family had left the grave open in the hope that the body would be returned, but they had not reported the offence to police.

"We didn't think it was worth it because the police are corrupt in Pakistan," she said.

She said that after Eamon's death, she and her husband, Kasim, 23, had taken the child for burial in the family's cemetery near Islamabad.

But two month's later they received a call from Aneela's grandmother, to inform them that the grave had been desecrated and the body stolen.

I'm still very upset about it and am thinking about trying counselling to help me cope," Aneela said.

"I try to take things one day at a time. I just want to know that my son is at peace somewhere now.
"I work with vulnerable people and that brings me some comfort.

"I hope it will pay for my sins, for whatever I did to deserve this," she said.

In 2011, two men were arrested in Islamabad on suspicion of digging up 40 graves to steal bones for use in black magic.

In Pakistan, the use of black magic is widespread. Practitioners sell charms which they claim can help to reverse bad fortune, and cure illnesses.