Man defaces ex-wife’s husband in acid attack

A man splashes acid on the face of his former wife’s husband in Skardu after he refuses to divorce her.

GILGIT:

A man splashed acid on the face of his former wife’s husband in Skardu after he refused to divorce her, police said on Friday.

This is first such incident ever reported in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The incident is said to have occurred at about midnight on Thursday when the victim was asleep.

The assailant was later identified as Abdur Rasheed and the victim, his cousin, Muhammad Farid.

According to police, half of Farid’s face and one of his eyes had been affected.

According to hospital sources, Farid was now in a stable condition. A doctor at the Skardu hospital, where Farid is admitted, said that the victim may have been rendered blind. Though police in Skardu remained tight-lipped about the issue, other sources said that Rasheed and his wife had divorced over a domestic dispute and both had remarried.

However, Rasheed now wanted to re-marry his ex-wife but Farid refused to divorce her.

Rasheed and Farid, both in their thirties, had lived in Balakot their whole lives, working as labourers at bus terminals and automobile workshops. They had moved to Skardu last week where they were working as daily wagers in a private goods transporting company.

Farid’s neighbours came to his rescue after they heard his screams. Police said that they had arrested Rasheed and were questioning him.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2011.