'End acid violence by 2015'
When her husband Abul Hossain threw acid on her five years back, she was carrying a baby of two months.
Her only fault was that she expressed unwillingness to sell the land she got from her mother before her death.
“As I did not give him money selling my land, my husband drove me away from his house,” said 35-year-old Sharifa of Narsingdi.
“I went back my parents' home and started working at a handloom industry. Yet the man threw acid on me burning the right portion of my body,” she told The Daily Star.
“Now my son Hridoy sometimes asks me why his father does not stay with us. He finds it difficult to believe that it is his father who is responsible for my pain and such suffering,”
Sahrifa came to join Acid Survivors Foundation's (ASF) national conference at Biam in the city yesterday. Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira was the chief guest.
In a sense Sharifa is luckier than many other women in the country. She at least got justice. The culprit, Abul Hossain, is now serving life term imprisonment.
But survivors like Salma of Bhola, Rupjan of Shetabganj in Dinajpur, Monira of Tongi, and many more are yet to see the culprits, who destroyed their life, punished.
At the conference between acid survivors and government officials, speakers discussed the loopholes why it takes a huge time to get justice and how the criminals escape trial.
They stressed the need for timely completion of the trial and pledged to eliminate acid violence by 2015.
A total of 115 acid survivors from 11 districts joined the conference.
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