Acid attack: ‘They tried to make her drink acid’

Woman being treated for injuries to eyes and face.

LAHORE:

A woman suffered burn injuries to her eyes and face in an acid attack in Ichhra on Thursday.

The police have established in preliminary investigations that two men and a woman broke into the house in Ichhra and attacked Zahida Begum and Shamim Bibi, said Qayyum Ahmed, naib moharrar at Ichhra police station.

He said that the police had received an application for the registration of an FIR and were awaiting the medico-legal report on the injuries suffered by Shamim Bibi, who was being treated for her wounds in a hospital.

The complainant, Mian Muhammad Tahir, husband of Zahida and brother-in-law of Shamim, said that the attack was carried out by brothers Ameer Hamza Butt and Mir Muavia Butt and their mother Nazima Bibi.

He said that they had broken into his house in Mohalla Sardarpura, Ichhra, while he was away. They beat up the two women, leaving Zahida unconscious.

He said that they had brought a bottle of acid with them and had tried to force Shamim to drink it. She resisted and some acid splashed on her face. He said that the attackers fled when he and some other neighbours, hearing the women’s cries, had entered the house.

Tahir said that he had quickly thrown cold water on Shamim’s face, otherwise her injuries could have been worse. He said her eyes were heavily swollen and doctors were yet to assess how badly her vision had been affected.

Tahir said that the attack had been motivated by revenge. He said that the brothers had recently been involved in a dispute and he had acted as a mediator. He said that the boys had been harassing girls in the neighbourhood. He had forced them, as well as their parents, to apologise at a small panchayat and they had been humiliated. He said they had later threatened him.

The police said that the Butt family had not returned to their home in the neighbourhood since the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2012.