Acid Violence in Pakistan

Human rights · Ground reality

Acid Violence in Pakistan

In the first week of June 2026, a doctor in Quetta and a 17-year-old in Ghotki were attacked with acid. One became a national story. A look at what the law has changed since 2011, and what it has not.

By Sumair Ahmed Mahar · Readers' · October 2026 ·

Dr Mahnoor Nasir, a 29-year-old surgery trainee, was in her duty room at Civil Hospital Quetta in early June when someone knocked on the door. CCTV footage seen by Arab News shows the man at her door. When she opened it, he threw acid at her and ran. He was a lift operator at the same hospital.

A hospital worker, Abdul Razzaq Tareen, ran to help and was burned himself. Police said they traced the accused within hours and shot him dead at a bus stop as he tried to leave the city. Doctors’ groups questioned that account. A suspect taken alive could have been tried, and could have told investigators what he knew.

Dr Mahnoor was flown to Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi. Hospital sources said 13 per cent of her body was burned and that both eyes were affected, but her eyesight was intact. Reports differed on how much surgery she would need.

Months of warnings

The Balochistan health minister said investigators found messages on the accused’s phone showing he had harassed Dr Mahnoor for months. He added that it was surprising she had not told the hospital or her family. This is the usual shape of these cases: harassment, a refusal, then acid. I suspect many women stay silent because they expect to be blamed rather than protected.

Nor is Quetta an isolated case. The News on Sunday reported that four other women had earlier been attacked with acid in the city’s Sariab area, and quoted the Aurat Foundation’s Quetta director saying cases of gender-based violence there are rising.

The same week in Ghotki

In the same week, in a village near Ghotki in Sindh, a 17-year-old girl was attacked with acid at home. Her family says her cousin forced his way in because he objected to her having a mobile phone. Her eyes and an arm were reported badly burned. The family says they had already complained to the cousin’s family and were ignored. After the attack they moved in with relatives and demanded his arrest.

I found one television report on this case. It received nothing like the national coverage Quetta did, and I could not find out whether anyone has been arrested.

Karachi saw another attack in early September. A 35-year-old domestic worker, originally from Bahawalpur and living alone after her husband remarried, was attacked by a man on a motorcycle while travelling between two houses where she worked. She was taken to the Burns Centre at Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital. Police said they arrested a suspect in Rajanpur, in Punjab, after the Sindh home minister took notice. The reports I read gave no motive.

How many

Nobody agrees on the numbers. According to figures reported by The Express Tribune, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) recorded 28 incidents affecting 31 women in 2025, 27 of them in Punjab and three in Sindh. Sindh Police counted five in Sindh. NGO estimates for the whole country run from 150 to 200 a year.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police recorded only three cases in 2025, which is hard to believe for a province of over 40 million people. Everyone agrees the true number is higher than what is reported, because of stigma and because many cases never reach a police station.

The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) has the longest record: about 1,180 acid and burn attacks between 2011 and 2018. Its 2017 report found attacks had fallen by about half since 2014, when 153 were recorded. It also found 85 per cent of attacks in Punjab, mostly the south, with Sindh next, and 99 per cent of attackers male. Some of the injured were children who happened to be sleeping next to their mothers.

Why acid

People who study these cases keep coming back to control. A woman refuses a proposal or a marriage, or does something her family or neighbours disapprove of, and someone decides to mark her for it. Not every case fits. A Daily Mirror column describes a woman in Bahawalpur attacked by a neighbour over a property dispute, and a man in Okara who threw acid at his mother-in-law and her teenage son after his own marriage fell apart.

ASF’s chairperson has described most victims as poor, rural and mostly illiterate women. The same column puts the price of a bottle of acid at Rs80, sold over the counter at chemist shops. I could not confirm that figure, but nothing I read suggests acid is hard to buy.

What the law says

In 2011 Parliament made acid attack a separate offence under Sections 336-A and 336-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, punishable by up to life imprisonment. It did not control who could buy acid. An acid-control bill had stalled earlier, and Shahnaz Wazir Ali, a parliamentarian who worked on it, has said part of the reason was that acid is made in factories for many industrial uses.

Punjab went further in 2025. Its Acid Control Act requires a licence to sell about 30 corrosive chemicals, makes unlicensed sale non-bailable, makes sellers keep records of buyers, and makes a seller pay compensation if an attack happens through their negligence. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s commission on the status of women has since drafted a provincial law of its own.

Sindh, as far as I can tell, has nothing equivalent. ASF and the Sindh Commission on the Status of Women discussed a draft acid and burn crime bill years ago, and women legislators pledged support. Reporting through 2025 still says Sindh has no dedicated law, and I found no sign that one has passed since. A survivor, Ahmar Iqbal, petitioned the Sindh High Court over the open sale of acid. The judge noted that acid also has household uses, called it a provincial matter and asked the advocate general to look into it. I could not find out what came of it.

What the Supreme Court said

On 8 June, days after the Quetta attack, the Supreme Court decided an unrelated appeal from a 2019 attack in Faisalabad. It upheld a life sentence, ordered Rs1 million in compensation for the victim and refused to treat the convict’s age as a reason for leniency. The judges called acid attacks worse than murder and described what survivors live through as a “social death.”

The court asked governments to ban acid sales to private individuals, to bring survivors under disability quotas, and to create a National Acid Survivors’ Rehabilitation Fund by law, covering reconstructive surgery, therapy and counselling.

On 8 September a Senate committee passed a bill proposing the death penalty for acid attacks and making the offence non-bailable. I found reports of the committee vote only, and no report of it becoming law.

After the attack

Survivors often need years of reconstructive surgery and counselling, and burns to the face can cost a person their sight. Many are shunned and lose their work, and most come from families with very little money.

Dr Mahnoor was flown to Karachi. The health minister said Balochistan has two burn centres and that she was moved at her family’s request. The Young Doctors Association said Quetta’s hospitals lack proper facilities. Either way, most survivors will not get an air ambulance. The Ghotki girl’s family moved to a relative’s house, and Karachi’s burns centre is several hundred kilometres from Ghotki.

What should change

Acid should be sold under licence in every province, Sindh included, with a record of who bought it. The provinces should also say how they will enforce the Supreme Court’s call for a ban on sales to private individuals.

A complaint has to count as a warning. The Ghotki family complained before the attack. Dr Mahnoor was harassed for months, and medical organisations have asked for stricter mechanisms to protect women doctors from harassment in hospitals. An accused who is killed cannot be tried, and cases that are delayed or dropped tell attackers nothing will happen to them. When a convict cannot pay, the state should pay the compensation.

Burn and reconstructive care has to be within reach of upper Sindh, and hospitals should be required to inform the police. HRCP, ASF and the police should agree on one official count each year. Families can teach boys that a refusal is not an insult, and community and religious leaders can say publicly that this is a crime.

If acid is thrown: flush the skin with plenty of clean running water straight away, for at least 20 minutes. Remove clothing and jewellery the acid has touched, without pulling anything over the face. Do not apply creams, toothpaste or other chemicals. Get to a hospital immediately and report the attack to the police (15). This is general first-aid awareness, not medical advice.

Sources

1. Arab News: Quetta attack, CCTV, police account
2. The News and The News: health minister’s statements, FIR
3. The Express Tribune: treatment in Karachi
4. The News on Sunday: Quetta, Sariab area, Aurat Foundation
5. 24NewsHD: Ghotki attack
6. Dawn and Daily Times: Gizri attack, Karachi
7. The Express Tribune, “The scars that never fade”: HRCP and police figures, legal framework
8. The Express Tribune, ASF report
9. Pakistan Today and The News: Supreme Court judgment
10. Asia News Network: Senate committee bill
11. ProPakistani: Punjab Acid Control Act
12. The News: Sindh draft bill consultation
13. Daily Mirror: column on acid attacks in Pakistan

Official counts differ between sources and are widely believed to understate the problem. Reports also differ on some details of the Quetta attack (the exact day, and the percentage of burns) and on the date of the Supreme Court judgment; 8 June is the date most reported. Accounts of the Ghotki attack are the family’s version as reported.

Sumair Ahmed Mahar is a student, writer and self-publisher from Sindh, and the editor of Readers'. His writing focuses on Pakistani society and human rights.

This article is the exclusive intellectual property of Sumair Ahmed Mahar, originally published on Maud Jaam Articles (maudjaam.blogspot.com). Reproduction or redistribution on any platform without the express permission of the author is strictly prohibited. © 2026 Sumair Ahmed Mahar. All rights reserved.

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