September 24, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 23, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Farooq H. Naek has asked the Mandi Bahauddin police to take action against the accused involved in throwing acid on the face of a schoolteacher.

According to a press release, the minister summoned SSP Mandi Bahauddin Dr Masood Ahmad, SHO Saddar Mandi Bahauddin and the SHO of I-9 Islamabad police to his office on Tuesday morning and sought details of the investigation in the incident in which the accused allegedly raped the woman and then threw acid on her face.

The minister termed the incident a heinous crime and directed the police to make all efforts to bring the accused to justice.

He was informed by the SSP that the incident took place on September 1 in Islamabad but the aggrieved party did not report the incident in any police station.

The accused, Azhar, brought the victim from Mandi Bahauddin to Islamabad, deceiving her that he would arrange a diploma for her from Quaid-i-Azam University and would marry her on return. They spent a couple of days in a local hotel and when the fraud was sensed by the victim, she tried to leave the accused. But the accused raped the victim and then threw acid on her face.

The grieved party reported the incident to the Mandi Bahauddin Saddar police after a week and nominated three brothers in the case.

The SSP said two of the accused - Sajid and Mazhar - were arrested while search for the third accused was underway. The victim is being treated in the burns unit of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Islamabad.