Acid Throwing

The act of deliberately throwing or applying a corrosive acid, most often sulfuric or nitric acid, onto another person's body, typically the face, with intent to disfigure, blind, maim or kill the victim, most extensively documented in South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, where a substantial share of recorded cases involve an attack on a woman by a spurned suitor, husband, or family member following a marriage or dowry dispute. It is prosecuted as a distinct, more severely punished offense from ordinary assault in a number of jurisdictions, including Bangladesh's Acid Control Act and Acid Crime Prevention Act enacted in 2002, which also restricted the open sale of concentrated acid, reflecting the offense's documented pattern of causing severe, permanent disfigurement and its comparatively low cost and easy availability to an attacker relative to a firearm or other weapon.