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Move to amend laws to stop acid violence

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The government has taken initiatives to amend the Acid Crime Prevention Act 2002 and the Acid Control Act 2002 to stop acid violence in the country.
Punishment to the perpetrators will he increased under the amended law. State Minister for Home Advocate Shamsul I loque "Riku said this while he was addressing a national dialogue on 'Open Market Acid Side in Bangladesh' organised by ActionAid at a city' hotel yesterday.
He said new provisions would be added to the law to stop illegal trade of acid with strict penalties as acid violence is one the most heinous forms ofcrimes against humanity.
The amended law would also address misuse of the act by a devious quarters to harass opponents, he added.
Speakers at the dialogue, however, said enactment of laws is not enough unless it is implemented properly. They said it takes a long lime to dispose of the cases in acid violence giving way to the criminals to escape while perpetrators of illegal trade of acid hardly get punishment.
For lack of monitoring on open market sale of acid and lack of cooperation from the law enforcers many offenders remain at large, they said.
They said previously women were the main victims of such crimes. Nowadays, men also become victims of acid violence over land dispute and previous enmity. The ratio of men becoming the victims of acid violence is quite prevalent comprising 35 percent in recent times, they added.
Farah Kabir, country direc-
tor of ActlonAid, said some of the districts have high ratio of acid violence. Of them, Dhaka, Satkhira, Sirajganj and I Mnajpurarcat (hetop.
These districts have prevalence of handloom and jewellery trade, which requires usage of acids.
There were 137 cases of add violence from 2001 to 2009 in Satkhira, 135 in Sirajganj, 69 in Dinajpurand 54 in Dhaka. Many other incidents remain unreported. Accidents while trans portingacid caused 50 lives.
Monira Rahman, executive director of Acid Survivors’ Foundation and member ot Acid Control Committee, said although there are two laws in the country most perpetrators remain unpunished. Only 10 percent of perpetrators are being punished, she said.
One incident of acid violence takes place in every two
days. About 3000 cases were reported in the country during the last 10 years, she added.
She urged the law enforce ment agencies to be more sincere while dealing with the cases of acid violence.
I he speakers urged the government to introduce burn units in all district hospitals, activate acid control committees at the district level, make mandatory the registration for acid users with strict monitoring. prevent smuggling of acid from India and rehabilitate acid survivors.
Dr Samanta lai Sen, head of burn unit at Dhaka Medical (College Hospital, Prof Dr S M Imamul Huq, chairman of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Naima Imam Chowdhury of ActlonAid also spoke.