SRINAGAR: A young woman who suffered serious facial injuries after a man attacked her with acid has been employed by the government as state laws relating to crime against women have been put up for a review.
The incident had happened in early January, when massive protests against the gang-rape and death of a 23-year-old Delhi girl were still going on.
The woman has been left with injuries on her face and arms and a damaged left eye.
The acid-attack, a rare one in Kashmir, evoked widespread condemnation from all sections of the society alike, but many, including the opposition People’s democratic Party, insisted that the government rehabilitate her.
Authorities have now appointed her in the state’s education department as a laboratory assistant, the Greater Kashmir newspaper reported.
The recruitment has been made “in relaxation of the rules” and formal orders will be issued in a couple of days, it wrote quoting sources.
The victim, in her late twenties, worked at a private school in Parraypora locality of Srinagar where a man, Reyaz Ahmed Nath, threw acid at her on Jan 2.
Nath was arrested but why he attacked her is still not clear.
Crime, particularly against women, is increasing in Kashmir and prompted by outrage over the Delhi gangrape, the state has put up its own laws for violence against women for review.
It has constituted a committee to look into suggestion to make the laws more stringent. Kashmir has its own constitution.
The government also bore all expenses on the woman’s treatment, although Dr Sameer Koul, a leader of the PDP had first offered to do so.
She had to get a special reconstructive surgery of her face done at the Apollo hospital in New Delhi, where she stayed for almost a month.
