Ahmedpur Sharqia (Islamabad): Shaheena moans in pain as the blistering heat of Pakistan's Southern Punjab sears her skin.

She cannot see anymore and has little chance of finding a husband with her once pretty face disfigured by acid burn.

The 15-year-old girl from the Seraiki belt of Punjab province is one of the thousands of helpless women victims of acid attacks, perpetrated by jealous husbands or dejected suitors of revenge.

Human Rights activists say women in Pakistan face multiple threats of violence including rape, murder, burning, honour killings and custodial abuse, but acid burn is one of the worst.

Shaheena and her elder sister, Sakeena, were deformed in an acid attack by the latter's jealous husband in November 2002.

Sakeena, who has burns on almost 70 per cent on her body, says her husband was a drug addict, given to fits of rage.

In a television interview in their one-room house in the small town of Ahmedpur Sharqia, 530 kms South of Islamabad, the two sisters recalled the horror of that day and the suffering they have had to endure since then.

"I was sitting with my head bent. I saw him holding it (jug of acid) like this. He kept watching me for two minutes, deciding where to pour it, and then poured the acid over my face. I jumped up," Sakeena said.

She said Shaheena, who had come to visit her and was sitting with her, received the dregs of the lethal brew right in her eyes.

There are no exact estimates of how many women fall victim to acid attacks or are burnt by what families describe as accidents with kerosene cooking stoves but social workers say they have "highlighted" 16,000 cases in Rawalpindi and Islamabad region alone over the last 15 years.

Madadgaar, a joint venture of Lawyers for Human Rights and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), has recorded 4,485 cases of violence against women in Pakistan in the year 2002, including murder, rape, burning and physical and sexual abuse.

The figures have been compiled from newspaper reports, and Human Rights activists say they are a fraction of the actual incidents.

"I think the most cruel, brutal act is to burn women, whether by stove, gas or acid. Because it segregates you altogether from the society," said Shahnaz Bukhari, head of Progressive Women's Association.

Many reasons are cited for the acts of violence against defenceless women. Sakeena's husband Malik Zahid Nawaz, in police lock-up, told the television that it was an act of sheer love.

"I said if I throw it (acid) on her face, her face will be spoilt, and then he will not want her. She will stay with me. She is my love," was Nawaz's bizarre excuse for his savage act.

Others believe the roots of this type of irrational behaviour lie in the rampant illiteracy and ignorance in this backward region. "Being uneducated, these people cannot think properly. They suspect their wives without reason. If a cousin or even a brother comes (to the house), they are prone to suspicions, and that is why these cases are on the rise," said Chaudhry Bhutta, a local politician.

But Bukhari says violence against women was rampant because of the absence of specific laws against domestic violence and also because of loopholes in the existing laws.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported that in the year 2000, a woman was raped every two hours, and that hundreds were victims of "honour killings", domestic violence, burnings and murder.

In honour killings, close male relatives kill a woman to avenge perceived shame she has brought to the family, which can range from having an affair to choosing a husband without the family's consent.

Even rape is considered to shame a family, so it often goes unreported.

Under Islamic laws, four witnesses are needed to convict a person of rape and there are no laws against wife beating.

ANI