PESHAWAR, Pakistan, June 24 (UPI)–An 18-year-old actress suffered severe burns on her face when a man barged into her house in Pakistan and threw acid on her, her brother said.
Bushra Waiz, who is also known as Shazia Aziz, was taken to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar early Saturday with burns on the right side of her face, leg and arm, CNN reported.
Her brother, Akhtar Waiz, said the family was sleeping in the courtyard of their home when the man barged in and threw the acid.
The family suspects the attacker is a local TV producer who had allegedly been pressuring the young Pashto actress to marry him after she worked for him.
“My daughter used to work as an actress and was hired by a producer named Shaukat Khan to act in his stage dramas and plays … but he was not willing to pay her and this led to a number of verbal arguments following which she refused to continue her acting,” Bushra’s mother said.
Acid attacks against women are on the rise in Pakistan, Dawn.com reported.
There were more than 150 cases in 2012 in the country, 30 of which were in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where the actress’ family lives.