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23-04-2021
By SJA Jafri + Agencies + Bureau Report
NEW YORK/ KARACHI: A group of “Young White Terrorists” threw acid on a Shia Pakistani college student in Long Island, a suburb of New York City, disfiguring her face and shattering her life in an attack that activists want investigated as an anti-Muslim (anti-Shia) hate crime which has not only increasing very fast across the world but also the target killing, enforced missing, kidnapping and torturing of Shia Muslims especially Shia young girls and women has spread globally and now neither the Shia Muslim are safe in Pakistan (particularly) nor anywhere worldwide (formerly), as PMI informed earlier, sources told Messenger.
Nafiah, 21, and her mother were getting out of their car outside their home on March 17 when the man rushed up to her, threw a caustic liquid at her face and ran off. She was left severely burned and nearly blind.
Nafiah, who is studying medicine at Hofstra University and has plans to be a doctor, was rushed to the hospital by her mother, who also works there.
Her father, Sheikh Ikram, 50, said that Nafiah was targeted on her way home from work.
The attack left her hospitalized for 15 days, with severe burns to her face, eyes, neck, and hands, according to victim herself and her close relatives and doctors.
“My whole life changed in a matter of five minutes,” Nafiah said in an interview. “We don’t realize what we have until it’s gone.”
She was all but blinded by the attack. “I can just see colors, but that’s it,” she added. “I want to know, like, what’s the reason? Like, what could I have possibly done to somebody?”
Neither the local, national or international media nor none of one US Authority even a single person out of almost 331 million population’s country while the 7.8 billion people are still remained silent but PMI not only traced and investigated the said incident but also worked impartially and flashed the world most sensitive issue like it has been highlighting since last thirty years, sources confirmed.
Nafiah is just starting to talk again, but still struggles to eat or drink, because acid burned her throat, her father said.
“She is very scared. My wife, she sleeps with her every night,” Ikram, he father said.
“She cannot shower herself; she gets scared when the water goes in her face…so my wife has to go in the washroom with her to bathe her and both arms are burned, she cannot do anything, so it’s very, very painful.”
Nafiah struggles to see even a few feet in front of her, and the family is praying she will be able to regain her vision.
The family says it is stunned by the outpouring of generosity and support from family and friends; almost $300,000 has been raised in donations to pay for medical costs.
“We just want to thank everyone who has really donated and we really want people to pray for her to heal and most importantly, pray for her eye. It doesn’t matter how much money in the world is there, but we need her health,” said Ikram.
Ikram pleaded with his daughter’s attacker to turn himself in before he hurts someone else Wednesday night.
“We just want to say, think about it… what you did to my daughter. Please don’t do (it) to anyone else.
“We are just hoping that that person will get caught because we don’t want anyone else to be in that condition.”
In a statement, CAIR-New York Legal Director Ahmed Mohamed Thursday called for a hate crime investigation into the attack on Nafiah.
He said, “CAIR-NY is disturbed and shocked at the brutality of this crime, and law enforcement must do everything to apprehend the suspects. Our community deserves safety. Amidst the rising hate crimes engulfing the state, it is important that this acid attack by an unknown individual be investigated as a possible hate crime.
“The family and the community at large must learn why this happened. The New York State Hate Crimes Task Force must aid local law enforcement as the search for the suspects enter the second month.
“Nafiah and her family need the support of her community. We ask everyone to keep the family in your prayers and pray that Nafiah makes a full recovery.”
“No, it’s not a random attack, it’s a planned attack,” sources quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder ‘formerly and traditionally’ (just because of extraordinary pressure of PMI and Messenger’s reproting) asked anyone with information to come forward and call, announcing a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
“This attack was a vicious and heinous crime and I am personally requesting anyone with knowledge to come forward,” he said.
