PESHAWAR, June 18: The police have failed to track down the culprits involved in an acid-throwing attack on an Afghan girl on the Arbab Road two weeks ago.

Storay, 16, a student of the Women English Language Programme, was going to the institute located in the Jehangir Abad Colony on June 5 at about 10am when a gang of unknown hooligans threw sulphuric acid on her back.

When she cried for help and some people rushed to her, the boys disappeared into adjoining lanes. Storay hurried to the institute and narrated the incident to Qamar Homam, the director of WELP.

Ms Homam told Dawn that teasing her students by the hoodlums was not a new thing but an acid attack had added a new dimension to such incidents.

“I took her (Storay) to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. I tried my best to lodge a complaint with them, but no one was ready to hear us. They simply said they cannot do anything in this regard,” Ms Homam said.

Later, Ms Homam said, she took Storay to the Khyber Teaching Hospital where a policeman recorded the girl’s statement.

Ms Homam said the police had contacted her just once to obtain the acid-stained clothes but after that they never inquired about the tragic incident.

The chemical examiner at the forensic department of the Khyber Medical College in his June 12 report confirmed the acid burns on Storay’s back. Yet, the police are not taking the matter seriously.

An officer at the University Town police station told this correspondent that they had registered a complaint (not an FIR) under Section 156/3 to track down the culprits.

Storay, the eldest among her bothers and sisters, told Dawn that she had changed her house a month ago because the same gangsters had chased her, teased her, and at times even pulled her chaddar. On one occasion, she further said, they threw stones into her courtyard.

Earlier Storay lived near the Kulachi Plaza where the same gang made her life miserable as she could not even come out of her home.

“I relaxed for one month after shifting to our new house. But, one day I noticed the gang chasing me near WELP. The next day they threw acid on me,” Storay said.

“We are orphans. We live with our widowed mother,” said the refugee girl whose three younger brothers work as carpet-weavers to earn the family a livelihood.