KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — A faith healer in Pakistan is being sought by police for allegedly hammering a nail into a pregnant woman’s head to ensure she carries a baby boy.

The woman had arrived at a hospital in Peshawar after trying to extract the 5cm nail by herself with pliers, BBC reported.

She had initially told doctors that she had committed the act herself, but later admitted a faith healer, who claimed he could guarantee she gave birth to a baby boy, was responsible.

Police started investigating after x-ray images of the woman’s injury appeared online.

Dr Haider Khan, a staff member at the Lady Reading Hospital, said the woman was "fully conscious, but was in immense pain,” when she arrived to seek treatment.

Staff at the hospital reportedly said the woman had approached the faith healer after hearing about the practice from a neighbour.

The woman has three daughters, and her husband had threatened to leave her if she gave birth to another girl.

"She is three months pregnant and because of her husband’s threat she went to the faith healer,” the unidentified hospital staff said.

Peshawar police chief Abbas Ahsan said a special team had been formed to "bring to justice the fake peer [faith healer] who played with the life of an innocent woman and put a nail in her head with [the] false promise of a male child”.

Police have spent several days interviewing hospital staff.

They are also trying to track down the woman, who left the hospital after staff removed the nail from her head, in the hopes that she can help them identify the man.