The Hindu : Front Page : Condition of acid attack victim Hina Fathima critical

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Saturday, Aug 11, 2007
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Condition of acid attack victim Hina Fathima critical

Muralidhara Khajane

For the sake of children she ignored caution and paid a heavy price

— Photo: M.A. Sriram

Overwhelmed by grief: A distraught Muneer Khan and his sister at K.R. Hospital in Mysore.

MYSORE: The condition of Hina Fathima, the 26 year-old housewife and mother, and victim of unspeakable spousal violence that involved force-feeding of acid and cigarette burns on the eyes, is critical, according to Geetha Avadhani, Medical Superintendent, K.R. Hospital.

The Udayagiri police arrested her husband Fairoz Ahmad Khan (27) and produced him in court on Thursday night. He has been accused of forcing her to consume alcohol laced with acid, and throwing acid on her in a fit of inebriated rage on Wednesday evening. He is now in judicial custody. The Executive Magistrate has recorded Ms. Fathima’s statement in the hospital.

Ms. Fathima’s decision to mend fences with her violent husband for the sake of her children after several months of separation proved deadly for her. “When Fairoz returned home on Wednesday evening, he was in an inebriated state. He sent my children out to play and bolted the door from inside. After switching on the tape recorder, he increased the volume so that neighbours should not hear my screams and forced me to drink liquor,” Ms. Fathima told The Hindu from h er hospital bed.

Pausing for a moment to regain her breath, she continued, “I protested, but he pushed me to the ground and forced the bottle into my mouth. Something started burning inside my body. Meanwhile, he took away clothes from the upper part of my body and poured the liquid over me. I felt as if I was sitting on a pyre. When he started burning my eyes with cigarette butts, I started screaming and lost consciousness. When I regained it, I was on this bed. I really don’t know who brought me here”, she said.

Recalling how acid seared through her upper body melting away the skin and flesh on her face, neck and chest, Ms. Fathima mumbled: “It was like burning hell”. Hospital sources said that it was Fairoz who brought her to hospital with the help of neighbours.

Ms. Fathima’s elder sister, Sufi, recalled the torture inflicted by Fairoz on her sister. With tears trickling down her cheeks, she said, “From the day they were married, he tortured her for one reason or the other.”

Ms. Fathima was locked in a room by Fairoz from which she escaped and went to Bangalore in search of their brother Wahab Khan, according to Ms. Sufi. She lost her two-year-old son Farman in the Kalasipalyam area.Ms. Fathima stayed with her brother for nearly nine months, but was pressurised by her in-laws to return for the sake of the children. Ms. Fathima is the fourth of the six children of Muneer Khan, (a retired Railway employee) and Ms. Zabeena. Ms. Fathima has four children Anmol (7), Sahil (5), Mehak (3) and Farman (2) who went missing in Bangalore. The family complained to the Mahila police station, where Fairoz was summoned and let off with a warning. The Mahila police station officer Devamma told The Hindu that she did not know why the previous officer had taken such a lenient stand.

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