Girl loses eyes in acid attack

JHANG, May 28: An influential landlord, along with his sons, threw acid on a girl’s face, permanently damaging her eyes, as her father had refused to marry her to one of his sons who had a bad repute.

Police, though registering a case and arresting two of the nominated accused fearing public protest, later released them, allegedly to please a local PML-N MPA.

Nawaz Shah of Moza Gagrana on Thursday told media outside the burns unit of the local DHQ hospital that a few months back one of his relatives Yousaf Shah approached him and proposed marriage of his (Nawaz’s) daughter Haleema Bibi with his son. Nawaz refused the proposal as Yousaf’s son had a bad reputation.

After a week Yousaf, along with his sons, allegedly attacked Nawaz when he was working in his fields, injuring the latter seriously. Nawaz got registered a case with Saddar police station against Yousaf and his sons.

Nawaz alleged as Yousaf and his sons were staunch supporters of the PML-N MPA, the police did not arrest them.

On Wednesday night, Yousaf and his sons barged into Nawaz’s house and threw acid on the face of his sleeping daughter Halima. On raising an alarm, the accused fled the scene.

Haleema was immediately shifted to the DHQ hospital with severe acid burns where doctors declared that she had lost her eyesight. Nawaz, along with some locals, went to the police and got registered a case against attackers, but police allegedly skipped some relevant sections, to the advantage of the accused.

Nawaz said two nominated accused were arrested fearing public protest, but later they were released on the ‘recommendation’ of the local MPA.

He said that if the police had arrested the accused in the earlier case, the tragic incident could have been averted.

He appealed to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and IG Tariq Saleem Dogar to look into the matter personally and bring the culprits to the book.

District police high-ups were not ready to talk on the issue.

Last month, a labourer girl Nazia was also subjected to an acid attack. She was badly burnt and was under treatment at the DHQ hospital. The nominated accused was later granted a bail.
Source: Dawn
Date:5/29/2009