A Pakistani college student was attacked with acid outside her home in the Long Island suburb of New York, US. The Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) has started an investigation on the matter while the activists want it to be investigated as an anti-Muslim hate crime.
The heinous act took place on March 17th, when 21 years old Nafiah Ikram along with her mother was getting out of her car outside their home. An unidentified man rushed up to her with a dark-colored substance, threw the caustic liquid at her face, and ran off. Nafiah was severely burned and lost her sight to the extent of blindness.
Her mother acted quickly and she was rushed to the hospital, suffering burns to her eyes, face, chest, and arms.
Nafiah is studying medicine at Hofstra University and plans to be a doctor. She called the experience “worse than death” and felt intense pain.
“I felt my chest being ripped out of my soul. That’s how much pain I was in,” she said.
Nafiah was hospitalized for 15 days after the attack with severe burns to her face, eyes, neck, and hands, according to the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), a Muslim civil rights group.
The attack has left Nafiah nearly blinded and the doctors are still not sure if she will regain her sight completely.
“I can just see colors, but that’s it,” Nafiah said.
Both Nafiah and her father, Sheikh Ikram, believe it was a pre-planned, targeted attack instead of a hate crime. Nafiah says she is nice to everyone and no one must have a reason to brutally attack her with acid.
“What could I have possibly done or said for someone to want to hurt me this much,” she said.
According to Ikram Nafiah is just starting to talk again but still struggles to eat or drink because acid burned her throat. He also pleaded with his daughter’s attacker to turn himself in before he hurts someone else.
$10,000 reward has been set for information leading to arrest of the suspect who is said to be 6 feet and 2 inches, has a skinny build, and wore a black colored sweatshirt with a hood, according to the NCPD.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder vowed to catch the suspect and told that the suspect fled in a red 2013-2015 Nissan Altima that has fog lights.
“We have no evidence at this time to say it was a hate crime, we have no evidence at this time to say that it was not a hate crime, we treat our victims the same.”
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