Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: A 21-year-old Pakistan-origin college student from Long Island in New York was assaulted by a suspect who doused her with acid on her own driveway in an attack activists want investigated as an anti-Muslim hate crime.
Nafiah Ikram was left severely burned and nearly blind in the appalling March 17 Elmont attack, New York Post reported. Her father, Sheikh Ikram, 50, described the incident as a “planned attack” and said Nafiah was targeted on her way home from work. “No it’s not a random attack, it’s a planned attack,” Ikram told The Post.
“If it was a random attack why did they waited for her to come home,” Ikram said, adding the suspect could have attacked his wife, who was outside moments earlier. “They come very closely to her and it was so much acid, like almost you can say one pound.”
Nassau County Police confirmed the nature of the attack and said cops were looking for a tall slim man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and gloves. “The male suspect was carrying a white-colored cup containing a dark-colored substance which he then threw at the victim’s face,” the police said in a statement.
Authorities believe the man may have fled in a 2013 or 2014 red Nissan Altima. Nafiah, who is studying medicine at Hofstra University, and has plans to be a doctor, was rushed to the hospital by her mother, who also works there.
“If I was not home if my wife was not home it would be maybe too late for her to even survive,” Ikram said.
The family does not believe Nafiah was targeted in a hate crime but says they have no idea why anyone would want to hurt her, let alone in such a vicious manner. “Why? We don’t have enemies,” Ikram pleaded. “My daughter, she is 21. She don’t have any enemies from her childhood. She is a very friendly person.” Nafiah is just starting to talk again, but still struggles to eat or drink, because acid burned her throat, her father said.
“She is very scared. My wife, she sleeps with her every night,” Ikram shared.
“She cannot 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 can not do anything. So it’s very, very painful.” 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.
