Two Pakistan-based charities have reported that hundreds of newborn babies have been found dead in garbage piles in Pakistan over the last year, with a majority of the dead infants being females due to a cultural preference for male children.

According to the the Edhi Foundation and Chhipa Welfare organization, at least 345 babies have been found in garbage piles in Karachi between January 2017 and April 2018. Ninety-nine percent of the dead infants were identified as girls.

"We have been dealing with such cases for years and there are a few such incidents which shook our souls as much. It left us wondering whether our society is heading back to primitive age," Anwar Kazmi, a senior manager in Edhi Foundation Karachi, told The News International.

In 2017, 355 dead babies were found in garbage dumps across Pakistan, with at least 180 of the cases originating in Karachi, the nation's most populous city.

Kazmi noted that many cases of infanticide in Pakistan stem from out of wedlock births. Baby girls born out of wedlock are sometimes killed in an effort to avoid stigma, while male infants are protected.

The charity worker recounted an incident that occurred over a decade ago when an infant was stoned to death outside a mosque because a cleric believed that the baby was illegitimate.

"A few people found a baby at the door step of a mosque in Karachi and they handed the baby over to the prayer leader. The cleric decried that this is an illegitimate baby therefore he should be stoned. Resultantly the baby was stoned to death. I tried to register a case against the cleric but nothing happened," Kazmi recalled, according to The News International.

Infanticide is considered a criminal offense in Pakistan, but police say such cases are rarely reported to the authorities.

A police official in Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi office noted that only one case has been registered with the Karachi Police last year. The official stressed that a proper investigation on such cases could only take place once a complaint has been filed.

Shahid Mehmood, a spokesperson of Chhipa, noted that the charity provides proper burial for the dead infants found in garbage dumps.

"The burial and other rituals cost us around Rs 2,000 per child. I wonder how poor can a person be that he/she cannot afford Rs 2000 to give a proper burial to their child," Mehmood said.

In an effort to save some of the babies, Edhi foundation has installed baby cradles called "Jhoolas" in several Pakistani cities so that people can leave unwanted infants instead of killing them.

However, the initiative has received little success as the foundation only received 14 unwanted children in 2017. Twelve out of the 14 infants were girls, while the remaining two were boys who were found to be physically unfit.