Woman injured in fifth acid attack in city in two months

In yet another horrific incident, a woman fell victim to an acid attack in Karachi’s Mansehra Colony on Thursday. This was the second incident of acid attack within the span of a week and the fifth incident in less than two months in the city.

The tragic incident took place at a house located in Mansehra Colony in Landhi. The victim was identified as 32-year-old Maryam Bibi, wife of Nasir. The woman was immediately taken to the burns ward of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, where doctors termed her condition out of danger, saying that she sustained 10 per cent burn injuries.

Police recorded her initial statement, in which she said she was at her house at around 10:30am on Thursday when someone knocked at the door of the house. “As soon as I went to the door, I found a burqa-clad woman wearing glasses, who threw acid on me and escaped,” she told police.

Police said the victim was the second wife of her husband and had no children. However, her husband has three children from his first wife who also resides in the same locality. “The incident took place when the victim’s husband was at his hometown Mansehra,” police said, adding that he was returning to the city after coming to know about the acid attack.

Police said they had recorded statements of the victim and her family members and now they were looking for her husband and his first wife who is suspected to be involved in the incident. No case had been registered till the filing of this news story and further investigations are under way.

This was the fifth acid attack reported in the city in less than two months. On September 24, a woman sustained burn injuries in her arms and back after her husband, reportedly a drug addict, threw acid on her. The incident took place in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar area where the husband along with two accomplices threw acid on his estranged wife.

On September 2, a man threw acid on his wife in Qayyumabad. The victim, a mother of three children, was admitted to the burns ward of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, with critical

injuries.

Police later arrested her husband, Sajid Riaz, who was also a drug addict. The woman was living at her mother's house where her husband attacked her.

In August 22 this year, a man was arrested in Baldia Town for allegedly attacking his ‘former’ wife with acid. Police said the victim used to make TikTok videos and had continued making them after her marriage, which reportedly frayed the couple's relationship. Also on August 22, a woman was arrested in New Karachi for throwing acid on her former husband. The perpetrator was identified as Shabana Kaushar who lived in Liaquatabad.

She allegedly attacked her former husband Mohammad Usman with acid at his home on August 19. SHO Mohammed Nadeem said the couple had separated but the suspect was insisting that her former husband marry her again after performing the practice of ‘Halala’. As the man was reluctant to that idea, the woman threw acid on him, the officer added.

Of the five acid attack incidents, the prime suspects were arrested in three of the cases. The suspects in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar and recent Mansehra Colony acid attack are yet to be apprehended.