Rehana Akhter, a 22-year-old medical technician, who suffered appalling burns to her face and chest after acid was thrown on her allegedly by an army soldier and his accomplices on September 14, is fighting for life in the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Her family demanded the prime minister’s intervention to bring the acid thrower and his accomplices to justice.
‘I want justice as they have shattered her future and my dreams,’ said her father Abu Bakar Siddique, a security officer at Pabna Sugar Mills.
‘I want the prime minister to intervene; it would be impossible to bring the culprits to justice without her intervention as they are influential in the area,’ he said.
Giving the details of the incident, Rehana’s elder brother ASM Rokonuzzaman Rana said that Shamsul Alam, a 23-year old soldier in the army’s engineering construction battalion at Chittagong cantonment, and his accomplices threw acid on his sister through the window of their house at village Protap under Sadullapur upazila in Gaibandha when she was asleep on the night of September 14.
He said the incident had taken place after Rehana refused Shamsul’s proposal to marry her.
Rehana’s younger sister Ruma Akhter and mother Rezia Siddique also suffered burns in the acid attack.
Rehana was at first taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital from where she was shifted to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital the next day.
An army officer donated Taka 5,000 for her treatment, the family sources said.
But for this, they said, the family received no financial or other assistance for her treatment, which is very expensive and the poor family can hardly afford.
The family is spending Taka 2,000 daily for her treatment.
At least 100 women and girls suffered serious burns in acid attacks since January this year.
After completing medical technology course from Northern International Medical College Dhaka, Rehena was working at a pathological lab in Gazipur and on September 14 she was to join a private hospital in Rangpur, her family members said.
The police arrested the prime accused, Shamsul, and handed him over to Rangpur cantonment after the victim’s brother filed a case against three people, including Shamsul’s brother Shahabur Rahman and friend Milon Mia.
Officer-in-charge of Sadullapur police station Hasan Inam said the two accomplices of Shamsul had gone into hiding and the police were trying to arrest them.
Major Anwaruddin, who visited Rehana in the DMCH burn unit on behalf of the army and donated Taka 5,000 to her family. He told New Age on Saturday they had taken the incident seriously and the soldier was sent to quarter guard.
‘By this attack, he has undermined the prestige of a disciplined force,’ he said. ‘He must be punished.’
On Sunday, several hundred students formed a human chain and brought out a protest procession at Naldanga in Sadullahpur upazila demanding that the perpetrators be brought to book.
According to the Acid Survivors Foundation, a non-government organisation, between May 1999 and December 2009, about 2,314 incidents of acid attack took place in which 2,957 people suffered burns.
