‘Acid attack’: Medical examination reveals no burn injuries in girl’s body

The 17-year-old girl was allegedly tortured and forced to drink acid.

RAWALPINDI:

The medical examination of a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly tortured and forced to drink acid could not establish any burn injuries in her body.

A doctor at District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital, who attended the girl, said he had not been able to find burn injuries but she would be kept under observation for the next few days.

The doctor added that the girl is in stable condition; her blood and urine samples have been sent to the laboratory for further tests.

Earlier on Wednesday, the girl was brought to the hospital after she was allegedly tortured and forced to drink acid by her cousin, who along with six men, barged into her house in Tahli Mohri on Tuesday night. The doctors, after finding no torture marks on her body, had suggested carrying out her endoscopy to determine the effects of acid.

A medical report prepared earlier by doctors at Benazir Bhutto Hospital said that the girl had not taken any acid and there were no marks on her body that showed resistance against the suspects.

While talking to The Express Tribune, the girl’s mother alleged that the Civil Lines police were uncooperative as they are under the rival party’s influence. She claimed that her daughter, besides being forced to drink acid, had also been sexually assaulted after she was abducted along with her sister last month.

According to SHO Raja Shakeel Ahmed, the girl’s mother lodged a complaint last month, alleging that her daughters had been abducted by her nephew. When the girls were recovered, one of them conceded before a special magistrate that she had married her cousin and that they had left their house on their own will.

Following her statement, the case became weak and the police ordered the other sister’s statement to dispose of the case. On Wednesday, she was supposed to record her statement before the court, but the suspects, in a bid to stop her from giving her statement, forced her to drink acid, said her mother.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2012.