KATHMANDU: A dismembered head of a newborn was found in a barren land close to the Dhobi Khola bridge in Bijuli Bazaar on Sunday morning.

According to Khagendra Dahal, sub-inspector at Metropolitan Police Circle, Singha Durbar, the police, acting on a tip-off of a passerby, found the head at around 8 am. It has been sent to TU Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj for postmortem. However, gender of the infant could not be ascertained as the body was not recovered at the site. Police suspected that the infant was wrapped and supposedly dumped after murder by the mother. "Probably, stray dogs ate up the body parts and discarded the head," said Dahal.

After the word of recovering of an infant head spread in the vicinity, hundreds of people thronged the scene.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, had collected public inquiry report to investigate into the incident.

Recovering bodies of infants is not an unusual phenomenon in the Kathmandu Valley where hundreds of babies born to illegitimate relationship and are dumped for fear of the family and society.