{"id":9987,"date":"2021-04-22T22:04:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T22:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=9987"},"modified":"2021-04-22T23:46:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T23:46:22","slug":"anti-muslim-hate-crime-in-new-york-pakistani-student-faces-acid-attack-severely-burned-nearly-blind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/anti-muslim-hate-crime-in-new-york-pakistani-student-faces-acid-attack-severely-burned-nearly-blind\/","title":{"rendered":"ANTI MUSLIM HATE CRIME IN NEW YORK ? Pakistani Student Faces Acid Attack -Severely Burned, Nearly Blind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"New York ; Monitoring Desk – 22 April 2021 -An unidentified man threw acid on a Pakistani college student in the Long Island suburb of New York, US, disfiguring her face in an attack that activists want investigated as an anti-Muslim hate crime.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Nafiah Ikram, 21, and her mother were getting out of their car outside their home on March 17 when the man rushed up to her, threw a caustic liquid at her face, and ran off. She was left severely burned and nearly blind.<\/h3>\n

Nafiah, who is studying medicine at Hofstra University, and plans to be a doctor, was rushed to the hospital by her mother, who also works there.<\/h3>\n

Her father, Sheikh Ikram, 50, said that Nafiah was targeted on her way home from work.<\/h3>\n
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\u201cNo, it\u2019s not a random attack, it\u2019s a planned attack,\u201d The\u00a0New York Post<\/em>, a mass-circulation tabloid,\u00a0quoted him as saying<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder asked anyone with information to come forward, announcing a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.<\/h3>\n

\u201cThis attack was a vicious and heinous crime and I am personally requesting anyone with knowledge to come forward,\u201d he said.<\/h3>\n

The attack left Nafiah hospitalised for 15 days, with severe burns to her face, eyes, neck, and hands, according to the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), a Muslim civil rights group.<\/h3>\n

\u201cMy whole life changed in a matter of five minutes,\u201d Nafiah said in an\u00a0interview with\u00a0WCBS-TV<\/em><\/a>. \u201cWe don\u2019t realise what we have until it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/h3>\n

She was all but blinded by the attack. \u201cI can just see colours, but that\u2019s it,\u201d she told\u00a0WCBS<\/em>. \u201cI want to know, like, what\u2019s the reason? Like, what could I have possibly done to somebody?\u201d<\/h3>\n

Nafiah is just starting to talk again, but still struggles to eat or drink, because acid burned her throat, her father said.<\/h3>\n

\u201cShe is very scared. My wife, she sleeps with her every night,\u201d Ikram said.<\/h3>\n

\u201cShe can not shower herself, she gets scared when the water goes in her face … so my wife has to go in the washroom with her to bathe her. And both arms are burned, she cannot do anything. So it\u2019s very, very painful.\u201d<\/h3>\n

Nafiah struggles to see even a few feet in front of her, and the family is praying she will be able to regain her vision.<\/h3>\n

The family says it is stunned by the outpouring of generosity and support from family and friends. Almost $300,000 has been raised in donations to pay for medical costs.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe just want to thank everyone who has really donated and we really want people to pray for her to heal and most importantly, pray for her eyes. It doesn\u2019t matter how much money in the world is there, but we need her health,\u201d said Ikram.<\/h3>\n

Ikram pleaded with his daughter\u2019s attacker to turn himself in before he hurts someone else on Wednesday night.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe just want to say, think about it \u2026 what you did to my daughter. Please don\u2019t do [it] to anyone else.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are just hoping that that person will get caught because we don\u2019t want anyone else to be in that condition.\u201d<\/h3>\n

In a statement, Cair-New York\u2019s Legal Director Ahmed Mohamed on Thursday called for a hate crime investigation into the attack on Nafiah.<\/h3>\n

He said, \u201cCair-NY is disturbed and shocked at the brutality of this crime, and law enforcement must do everything to apprehend the suspects. Our community deserves safety. Amidst the rising hate crimes engulfing the state, it is important that this acid attack by an unknown individual be investigated as a possible hate crime.<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe family and the community at large must learn why this happened. The New York State Hate Crimes Task Force must aid local law enforcement as the search for the suspects enter the second month.<\/h3>\n

\u201cNafiah and her family need the support of her community. We ask everyone to keep the family in your prayers and pray that Nafiah makes a full recovery.\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York ; Monitoring Desk – 22 April 2021 -An unidentified man threw acid on a Pakistani college student in the Long Island suburb of New York, US, disfiguring her face in an attack that activists want investigated as an anti-Muslim hate crime. Nafiah Ikram, 21, and her mother were getting out of their car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,24,84,46],"tags":[1172,79,580,1121,122],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9991,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9987\/revisions\/9991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}