In yet another horrific acid attack, a man threw acid on his former wife in Karachi’s Mehmoodabad area on Thursday night, injuring her and another woman.
The tragic incident took place in Street No. 3, Akhtar Colony, falling under the jurisdiction of the Mehmoodabad police station. After receiving information, police and rescue workers reached the house and took the women to the burns ward of the Dr Ruth KM Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK).
Citing their initial investigation, police said the suspect has been identified as Yasir, adding that he went to the residence of his ex-wife, 27-year-old Sana, and threw acid on her before escaping.
The officials said Sana and another woman, identified as 45-year-old Shazia Ali Khan, suffered injuries in the attack. No case had been registered until the filing of this report. Police, however, are trying to locate the suspect.
This was the seventh acid attack in the city within a span of three and a half months: two of the previous attacks had occurred in August, three in September and one in October. On August 22, a man was arrested in Baldia Town for allegedly attacking his ex-wife with acid. Police said the victim used to make TikTok videos and had continued making them after their marriage, which reportedly frayed the couple’s relationship. Also on August 22, a woman was arrested in New Karachi for throwing acid on her ex-husband. The perpetrator was identified as Shabana Kausar, who lived in Liaquatabad.
She had allegedly attacked Mohammad Usman at his house on August 19. SHO Mohammed Nadeem said the couple had separated but the suspect was insisting that they get married again.
As the man was reluctant to that idea, the woman threw acid on him, added the officer. On September 2, an alleged drug addict threw acid on his wife, mother of their three children, in Qayyumabad, where the victim had been living at her mother’s house.
She was admitted to the CHK’s burns ward with critical injuries. Police later arrested the husband, Sajid Riaz. On September 24, another alleged drug addict, along with two accomplices, threw acid on his estranged wife in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, leaving her with burn injuries on her arms and back. On September 30, an unidentified burqa-clad woman allegedly threw acid on another woman at the latter’s doorstep in Mansehra Colony and escaped.
On October 7, a trans woman lost her life in Korangi after another transgender person she was living with threw acid on her after an argument erupted between them. The prime suspects in three of the previous six cases have been arrested. The suspects in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Mansehra Colony and the Korangi acid attacks are yet to be caught.