Acid attack near Lahore leaves teenage girl wounded

Published September 21, 2014
— File photo
— File photo

LAHORE: A 16-year-old girl suffered horrific injuries as two men threw acid in her face in a row over a failed marriage proposal, officials said Sunday.

S was attacked late Saturday at her home in the village of Qaim Bharwana in western Pakistan's Punjab province.

“Two men, Muhammad Tauseef and Asmat Ullah, climbed the wall of a house while family members were asleep and threw acid on the face of S, “police investigating officer Ejaz Hussain told AFP.

He said the two men were angry because the girl's family had rejected a marriage proposal from Ullah.

Hussain said Tauseef had been arrested but police were still raiding different addresses in an attempt to apprehend Ullah.

Muhammad Mumtaz, a senior doctor at the main hospital in the nearby city of Jhang, said Batool had sustained 90 per cent burns on her face, and her eyes had been badly injured.

Acid attacks, which disfigure and often blind their overwhelmingly female victims, have long been used to settle personal or family scores in Pakistan, with hundreds of cases reported each year.

The attacks fit a wider pattern of eroding women's rights in the country.

*Name of victim has been changed

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