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World of poetry shattered in acid agony

Shamim Ashraf and Shaheen Molla
Rupganj upazila, Narayanganj. A Wednesday evening. While walking on balcony Suma Akhter was reciting a poem not noticing anything around. Suddenly she saw three men approaching and before she realised anything, a flash of , something put her in deep agony.
She let out a piercing shriek as a canopy of darkness was covering her small little world. A moment of horror shattered the 14-year-old's dreams in Morapara village that evening.
The brutes threw acid on her which immediately burned 30 percent of her body.
"I saw them coming but didn't even imagine what they were going to do," the wretched girl, a class IX student of Open University, was sobbing while describing her horror to The Daily Star at the Burn Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Sunday. The colour of her eyes, hardly seen as her face swelled, showed she was weeping for long, unable to accept the brutal attack and the pain it inflicted on her.
Mohammad Jalil, a 35-year- old married thug of neighbouring Borabo village, used to wander around their house with two associates -- Faruq and Abu Kalam.
"For two long years, they continued teasing me, pulling my scarf and touching me on my way to and from school," Suma said, half-lying on the steel cot, unable to turn her head or bend her
Two years ago, Jalil met Suma's parents with a marriage proposal when she was only 12.
"Though we knew very well that he had a wife and children we didn't dare to refuse him straightaway, for he was infamous for criminal activities. He is accused in many cases and Rab even arrested him once," Suma's mother Atia Begum said.
"We tried to avoid him for the time being by saying that we would think about the marriage when she grows a little more."
As Jalil continued to tease her, Suma had to stop going to school for several weeks on several occasions over the past one year.
"Recently, he became very aggressive and started bothering me more. I didn't go to school for last two months," she said while struggling every minute to stand the pain.
Jalil approached Suma's parents again on Tuesday and got furious on refusal. "You've kept me waiting for two years; I won't let you get away with this,' the- mother quoted the thug as saying.
He demanded Tk 1 lakh in "compensation" and threatened the family with dire consequence for failure.
Suma's father Hossain Molla, a vegetable trader at Gabtoli in Dhaka, had no means to pay the sum. On his failure, Jalil along wi th Faruq and Abu Kalam went to his house at 6:30pm with a pot of acid, he said in a complaint he filed with Rupganj police on Saturday.
"Moments before they threw acid at me. I saw a pot-like thing in his (Jalil's) hands," Suma said.
Suma's mother, who was cooking, rushed to her hearing her screams. 7I saw smoke emitting from her body and pushed her into a nearby pond."
With 30 percent of her body including her face and arms burnea, she was committed to DMCH the same night where she is still undergoing treatment
None of the perpetrators has been arrested.
"They have fled immediately after filing of the case," Ashraful Islam, investigation officer of the incident, told The Daily Star last night.