KARACHI: An antiterrorism court handed down on Tuesday a collective sentence of 24 years to two women and acquitted their three male relatives in an acid attack case.

Marvi and her daughter-in-law Uzma were found guilty of attacking and injuring Zakia Munir with acid in August 2015 in Sohrab Goth while Marvi’s husband, Ghulam Haider, and their sons Qadir and Nadir were exonerated for lack of evidence.

Additional district and sessions judge (Malir) Shafi Mohammad Pirzada, who conducted the trial as an ATC judge, awarded 14 years to both women for causing serious burn injuries to the victim and 10 years imprisonment for attempted murder.

The court also directed the convicts to pay Rs500,000 each to the victim as compensation and in case of default they would have to spend an additional year in captivity. However, the court said that both sentences [10 and 14 years] would run concurrently.

The court in its verdict said that Uzma attacked the victim with acid and her mother-in-law, Marvi, helped the main accused. However, the case against the male accused was doubtful and the benefit of the doubt was given to them.

According to the prosecution, the victim was alone at home when the accused persons broke in, got hold of her and Uzma threw acid on her. The victim said that she had refused a marriage proposal from Nadir a few days before the incident because he was already married, it added.

Police arrested the accused a few days after the incident while Ghulam Haider’s daughter Fatima is still at large.

A case was lodged against the accused under Sections 324 (attempt to commit murder), 336-B (punishment for itlaf-i-salahiyyat-i-udw, destroys or permanently impairs functioning power or capacity of an organ of body of another person or cause permanent disfigurement) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on a complaint of the victim.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017