Assailants burnt a one-and-a-half-year-old girl to death and injured her parents seriously with corrosive

acid tunnelling their way into the victims' mud house in Kishoreganj early yesterday in an apparent attempt to settle a score.

Police and hospital sources said Khadija died on the way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), while her father Abdul Awal, 35, and mother Dolena Begum, 26, are being treated for burns at the Acid Survivors Foundation in Dhaka.

Awal, a carpenter, alleged Khokon, a youth of his home village Neyamatpur, masterminded the grisly attack to avenge a quarrel.

"When he was passing by my

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house on Friday, he picked up a quarrel with me. After he misbehaved with me, my temper frayed and I slapped him," Awal said.

"Khokon threatened us with savage revenge in 24 hours," Dolena said, wreathing in her hospital bed in pain.

Awal alleged Khokon's friends Ruhul Haq, Nurul Amin, Kamrul, Shafiqul, Samuruddin punched a hole into their house at 1:30am and emptied bottles of acid on the family who were asleep.

The attackers burnt Khadija's face, throat and chest, her mother's hands, breasts and face and father's left leg and abdomen.

Khadija's elder sister Asma survived the mayhem unscathed in a miracle.

On hearing the victims' cry for help, neighbours raced to the scene and took them to a local clinic.

As their condition deteriorated, they were taken to the DMCH where doctors declared Khadija dead on arrival.

Awal and Dolena were shifted to the Acid Survivors Foundation in Banani from the DMCH for treatment.

The attack was the latest in a series of recent acts of acid violence. About 18 women and children suffered burns in 14 attacks in the third week of March, sparking fears of increased use of the corrosive chemicals in rural areas.