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Afghan Police Arrest Four over Acid Attack

Afghan police have arrested four suspects in connection with an acid attack on a 17-year-old girl and her family, allegedly for refusing a marriage proposal, the interior ministry said Friday.

The attack in late November attracted widespread media coverage and highlighted the dangers still facing women in Afghanistan 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the repressive Taliban regime.

The girl, Mumtaz, was seriously injured when masked gunmen broke into her home in Kunduz city and sprayed her face with acid.

Her mother and sisters also suffered slight burns in the attack after they were splashed with the acid, her father said.

"Afghan police arrested Nasir, a suspect linked to the acid attack, and three others yesterday and they were brought to Kabul for punishment," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters.

The suspects were handcuffed and presented to the media.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission logged 1,026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011 compared with 2,700 cases for the whole of 2010.

Some 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage, according to figures quoted in an October report by the charity Oxfam.

Last month, the United Nations said that a landmark law aiming to protect women against violence in Afghanistan had only been used to prosecute just over 100 cases since being enacted two years ago.

Source: Agence France Presse


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