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Acid Violence in Punjab, Pakistan
The incidence rate of acid attacks in Pakistan continues to be significant, and whilst it takes place at all levels of society, the overwhelming majority of acid survivors who are treated by the Acid Survivor Foundation in Islamabad arrive in their high numbers from the southern Punjab province. Readily available at throw away prices, with no stringent control on the trade or sale of acid, acid violence has become a significant problem in Pakistan, and the Punjab province is the countries hotspot (which is not to say that attacks are limited to the rural areas – there is a pervasive problem of acid violence in the country’s two largest cities, Karachi and Lahore).
Cotton is an important crop in the agricultural Punjab state. For the cotton seed to be fertilized and ready to be sowed in the field, acid is required to remove the cotton fuzz allowing for the re-use of the seed. By mixing the cotton seed with concentrated sulphuric acid in a plastic container, stirring it vigorously for a few minutes, the seed treatment is near completion.
Cotton seed ready for seed treatment
According to Mr Khalid Jamshaid Sindhoo, Executive Director of Agriculture Muzzafr Garh Punjab, “there is no substitute for this product. Thirty, forty years before cotton was not a major crop. It was only on a small number of beds. Mechanisation was no so much advance, farmers only had a very few of them. Now, now it is a big business. It is absolutely impossible to adopt the previous practice. It is not possible. Acid, to fertilise the seed is the only solution.
Just within in Muzafargh, 600,000 acres of cotton is produced. Why they are working and labouring over cotton is because their labour is not needed elsewhere. And there is not much labour in growing it. Acid is so easily available, and this is personal labour. All you need is a plastic tub to mix to treat the seed and then labour to cultivate it. To treat the seed with acid, this is a necessity”.
As is often the case, weapons that are most readily available are often the ones that are used. Stored on people’s shelves ready to be used for the fertilization of the cotton seed, nearly all homes in the Punjab region have highly concentrated acid at arms reach. Such a potent substance at such close proximity is a recipe for disaster in a country where violence against women is well-known to have reached crisis level. In a moment of fury acid becomes the weapon of choice.
Posted on August 05th 2009 by Test Member in Blog
