The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The number of acid attacks in Bangladesh fell to an eight-year low last year, a sign that tough laws and a massive prevention drive is bearing fruit, a campaign group said yesterday.

Such attacks used to be common in Bangladesh, with people embroiled in property disputes or spurned male suitors disfiguring their victims - mostly women.

The annual figures compiled by the Acid Survivors' Foundation (ASF) showed that the acid attack dropped from 221 in 2006 to 187 in 2007, the fifth consecutive year of decline.

Monira Rahman, Executive Director of the ASF, said,

"Some 57 per cent of the attacks were targeted against women and 18 per cent against children."

The group attributed the decline to a massive prevention campaign it has launched in collaboration with non-government organisations (NGOs), and tougher punishments for offenders.

Under the acid control laws, enacted in 2002, an attacker faces a minimum seven years in jail or even the death penalty. As many as 490 cases of acid attacks were recorded in the country in 2002.

According to the ASF, more than 2,627 people have been attacked with acid since May 1999. Of them, 1,500 have been rehabilitated by the ASF and other charities with the assistance from top local companies and international NGOs.