Acid attack: Victim’s parents express remorse

I deeply regret my action. I am repenting as I should not have done this, says mother.

KHOI RATTA: A couple who killed their teenage daughter by dousing her in acid spoke on Tuesday of their sadness and regret at the attack which they said they carried out to protect family “honour”. Both parents have been arrested and Anusha’s mother Zaheen Akhtar, speaking from her police cell in Khoi Ratta, said she feared for the future of the rest of her children.”I deeply regret my action. I am repenting as I should not have done this. She was very innocent. I feel like killing all my kids,” she said, adding that all her children were now left alone and there was no one to take care of them. Akhtar said she and husband Mohammad Zafar feared Anusha would follow in the footsteps of her elder sister who they married off at 16 “because people had been talking about her bad character”. Anusha’s treatment was delayed for two days which the father says was because they couldn’t afford to take her to the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.