Man burns wife with acid 'out of mistrust'

A woman of Tangail who suffered burns in a recent acid attack allegedly carried out by her husband "out of mistrust" has demanded justice for the crime.

Sharmin Akhter, 25, is being treated at the Burn & Plastic Surgery Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

She said that after the attack, her husband, Mazam Mia, 30, tried to establish that "a thief threw the acid" on her, at Basail of Tangail in the early hours of January 26.

Mazam, a street vendor, was arrested the next day.

Victim's brother Danis Mia told The Daily Star recently that when Sharmin was sleeping with her two children around 12:30am, suddenly she felt a fire burning her face, neck and chest.

After waking up, Sharmin saw her husband with a small container, who was running outside, shouting at the "thief", he said quoting his sister. She was taken to Basail Upazila Health Complex and then to DMCH.

Danis said the couple got married seven years ago, but the relationship was not going well as her husband was "attracted to other women", and he often spent the night outside.

He also alleged that two years back Sharmin was forced to take poison following a feud over her husband's "affair".

Recently Sharmin asked her husband to bring some anti-allergy medicine. But when she took the medicine on January 25 evening, she fell into a deep sleep, Danis claimed.

Nurul Islam Khan, officer-in-charge of Basail Police Station, said police first arrested Mazam on January 27, following a case filed over the incident by victim's father.

After primary investigation, police later arrested Mazam's aide Musa Mia, 40, an auto-rickshaw driver, who was asked to throw acid on Sharmin in exchange for Tk 46,000, said Shaymal Kumar Dutta, investigation officer of the case.

Both the arrestees confessed to throwing acid on her, at a Tangail court on January 29, he added. Quoting the arrestees, the investigation officer said Mazam mistrusted his wife suspecting that she was having an extra-martial affair with a relative.

Denying the allegation, Sharmin demanded stern punishment for the culprits, while talking to this correspondent at DMCH.