A garment worker who divorced her husband to relieve herself from his torture is now crying in pain at Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s Burn unit with her face fully burnt by acid her former husband threw.
Yar Mahmud, her former husband, threw acid on her face on Friday night, as she rejected his proposal to be his wife again, she said, sobbing.
Salma Akhter, the victim, asked for a divorce in March this year after Yar took a second wife.
Project Director of DMCH Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit Dr Samanta Lal Sen said Salma’s full face has been burnt. She also sustained 10 percent burn injuries on other parts of her body.
Salma, 24, married Yar Mahmud, 28, about five years ago following a romantic relation. The two were working at a garment factory in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
Within two months after the marriage, Yar started to physically torture her for money. He never allowed Salma using her monthly income of Tk 7,500 for herself, she said.
“He [Yar] used to keep me confined in the house by locking the door from outside,” she told The Daily Star yesterday.
Learning about the torture, Salma’s family has long been asking her to bring an end to their marriage.
Although she bore everything quietly, she could not accept Yar having a second wife, and finally sought a divorced in March, she said.
After the divorce, she changed her job and started living at a separate house she rented in Ashulia.
The torture, however, did not stop. Yar used to go to her house from time to time and torture her, she said.
She then started staying with her mother at Natun Bazar, Badda since July.
When Yar’s second wife divorced him, only two months into the marriage, Yar approached Salma saying he wants to take her as his wife again.
Rejected, Yar threw acid on Salma Friday around 9:00pm on her way home at Progati Sarani from work.
“I brought my daughter to my house to save her. But she couldn’t be saved,” said Keshori Begum, the victim’s mother.
She is now worried about the future of her daughter. “I wanted to marry her off somewhere else after the divorce,” she cried.
Meanwhile, Badda Police Station Sub-inspector Monirul Islam said they raided at Yar’s workplace and his village home in Mymensingh but could not arrest him as of filing this report last night.
