JHANG, Nov 8: Police have booked on Saturday three women for allegedly causing serious burns to their sister-in-law (wife of their brother) by throwing some inflammatory substance on her in Jogianwala locality of Jhang (Saddar) on Thursday.

According to the FIR lodged by Khawaja Manzoor Ahmad, brother of the victim, with the Kotwali police station, his sister Riffat Nadeem was married to one Nadeem Ahmed, who had a job in Saudi Arabia and lived there.

Riffat, who lived with her in-laws, had strained relationship with her husband who had been threatening to divorce her as he wanted to marry some other girl, the FIR said.

It said the victim’s relationship with her in-laws worsened when she started demanding Rs50,000 and 26 tolas of gold back, borrowed from her by her sisters-in-law -- Aziz Fatima, Habib Fatima and Kaniz Fatima -- some six months ago.

On Thursday, at about 4.30pm, when Riffat was reportedly making tea for herself in the kitchen, her sisters-in-law threw some substance on her which immediately set her clothes on fire. causing severe burns to her face, neck and other body parts.

Following the attack, the victim ran for her life, and despite her in-laws’ attempts to drag her back, succeeded in taking shelter in a neighbour’s house.

The neighbours extinguished the fire by wrapping blankets around her burning clothes. By that time, the victim had received severe burns to her face, neck and other body parts.

The neighbours rushed her to the DHQ hospital, from where she was shifted to the burns unit of a hospital in Lahore, where her condition was said to be serious.

Khwaja Manzoor told Dawn on the telephone that neither police nor the doctors at the hospital sent the victim’s clothes for chemical examination to ascertain the nature of the substance thrown on her.

According to Kotwali SHO Sajjad Ahmad Cheema, the three accused women were being interrogated.