Woman who attacked daughter with acid says it was her fate
ISLAMABAD: A woman who killed her teenage daughter by pouring acid on her face and body after they caught her talking to a boy has told the BBC it was the girl's destiny to die in this way.
Police in Pakistani-administered Kashmir arrested Mohammad Zafar and his wife Zaheen for the Oct 29 attack on their daughter Anusha, 16, who died in hospital two days later after suffering horrific acid burns.
The parents of the 16-year-old confessed to police in Kotli, a town in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, that they attacked their daughter after she had spoke to the boy outside their house, said Mohammad Jahangir, a local doctor at the hospital where she was brought.
“There were third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, both arms, chest, foot and lower part of legs. Even her scalp bone was exposed,” he said, adding that the mother initially told the hospital their daughter tried to commit suicide.
So-called “honour” attacks are common in deeply conservative Pakistan.
Rights activists say more than 900 women were murdered last year after being accused of bringing shame on the family in some way.
Speaking from their police cells, the father told the BBC they had warned Anusha before about looking at boys, while the mother described how her daughter had begged for forgiveness.
“She said, 'I didn't do it on purpose, I won't do it again,” the mother, whose own arm bore an injury from the acid, told the BBC.
“By then I had thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way.”The parents waited two days to take Anusha to hospital. A doctor told AFP the teenager arrived in a “very critical condition” with almost 70 percent burns.
Almost 1,000 women lost their lives last year in so-called “honour killings” in the conservative South Asian nation, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Activists say the actual number is much higher as most cases go unreported.