Man, niece come under acid attack

Victims rushed to government hospital where medics referred them to Jinnah Hospital in Lahore

SAHIWAL:

A man and his niece suffered burn injuries when an unidentified accused threw acid at their faces.

Police have arrested two suspects on the complaint by the victims.

The victims were rushed to the government hospital which referred them to the Jinnah Hospital in Lahore.

Amanat, a first-year student, was going to his college on a motorcycle with his teenage niece Rukhsana in Mouza Akbar Shah area when an unidentified motorcyclist wearing a helmet brought his vehicle closer to theirs and threw acid at their faces.

Police sources said that the victims’ had been embroiled in an intra-family land dispute, and the police surmised that the victims’ opponents had allegedly engineered the attack

Police arrested two suspects, Javed Shah and Dilbar Shah, and started their investigation.

Several incidents of acid attacks were reported from across the province in the last couple of years.

In one of those incidents, police had registered a case in Khurrianwala against three people allegedly for throwing acid at a person during an altercation.

The complainant had told the police that the accused, Ramzan, had borrowed Rs26,000 from him.

He said when he went to take back the money, the accused, along with his wife and son threatened him with “serious consequences”.

Later, the accused physically assaulted the money lender. Ramzan's wife and son then allegedly picked up a bottle of acid and gave it to Ramzan who threw the acid at the victim.

The victim sustained serious injuries and was shifted to the Civil Hospital.

Khurrianwala police registered a case under Section 336 B-337F3/34TPP against the three attackers.

In another incident, a man reportedly threw acid at his estranged wife after failing to convince her to return home in Khurrianwala.

The acid attack left the woman severely injured and she was admitted to the Civil Hospital. The victim had married accused Abdul Rafi four years ago.

The accused had allegedly tortured his wife and kicked her out of his house over a domestic dispute. She went back to her parents’ house. Later she was contacted by her husband to return home, but she refused.

The accused persisted in his demand for his wife to come home.

Read: Woman dies after consuming acid

In his desperation, the accused, armed with a pistol, entered into the house of his in-laws with two unidentified accomplices. He had a white cup in his hand and threatened to kill his wife as soon as he arrived.

He later threw the acid from the cup at his wife when she refused to accompany him home.

As a result, her eyes, nose, neck and shoulders were badly burnt and her eyes were almost lost. The accused fled on a motorcycle after the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2022.