Police in Afghanistan have arrested four brothers who threw acid on woman who had refused to marry one of them, attacked her mother and two sisters with acid, and brutally beat her father.Seventeen-year-old Mumtaz, the oldest of three daughters, had been pursued for two years by a local gunman considered a troublemaker by the family
Mumtaz was the most severely hurt and is being treated in India. Her mother and two sisters are in a hospital in Kabul. Her father, who was assaulted, has been released from hospital. He still has serious back and head problems, and fears that he cannot afford to stay with his family in Kabul for long.
Police in Kunduz detained three of the brothers on Thursday when they tried to arrange a meeting of elders to seek forgiveness from the family. The fourth was taken into custody on December 1. Police are now seeking to arrest two or three more people the family has accused of attacking them.
The family told police that six or seven armed men burst into their home in the middle of the night on November 30. Sultan Mohammad, the father of the family, said the men had split open his head when they attacked him with their guns, and then tied his hands so he could not stop the assault on his wife and daughters.
He said, "They beat me with a weapon and took me to another room, then they beat my family and poured acid on them."