She braves pain, silently

Srinagar, Jan 13: The red, swollen and scarred stretch of her face reflects the pain that she is in, at the SMHS hospital here. It also reveals the magnitude of the tragedy that has befallen her and her family.

For the 30-year-old acid attack victim, her beautiful face and persona has been the calling card as she would teach children at a preparatory school in Parraypora locality of uptown Srinagar, her family says.

The victim was attacked with acid by a stalker Reyaz Ahmad Nath of Chanapora area after assaulting her.

She tries to speak, but the pain and memory of the brutal incident don’t let her do so. She only gestures, seeking help from her relatives. She has suffered serious burns to her face and injury to the left eye.

Her family says she converses with them in murmur as her skin is bruised by acid, making her difficult to talk properly. “It was the most painful thing ever to happen,” she has told her family.
“Acid has ripped through her clothing the moment it touched her. She is feeling a burning sensation through the layers of her skin,” says her aunt.

While Reyaz threw acid on the victim, another youth Junaid Ahmad alias Mudasir helped him carry the attack in a lane in Srinagar, as she walked home from the school, says police.
By the time the victim tried to save herself, a part of her face and an eye had already become the target of the deadly chemical. “Her only crime was refusing the proposal of Nath as she was getting engaged after a few months,” her brother Riyaz Ahmad says.

A woman heard her screams and poured water on her. Others eventually came to help take her to the SMHS hospital. While she is in pain at the hospital, her family members console her. “Please sprinkle some water on my face. I am burning,” she murmurs.

Her father had died in an accident last year and she is being looked after by her uncle. “The perpetrator of the crime should be hanged. It will become a trend if he is not given exemplary punishment for the dastardly act,” her uncle said.

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