A person eyeing my husband’s post threw acid at him – Victim’s wife
Attack on NCP Ayur. Commissioner
North-Central Province Ayurvedic Commissioner Dr. Lokuliyanage Chandrakumar Alwis being rushed to the Eye Hospital in Colombo.A group of government Ayurveda physicians protesting against the attack . (Pictures by Saman Abeysiriwardene and Cyril Basnayake in Anuradhapura)
February 22, 2013, 12:00 pm
By Madura Ranwala and Norman Palihawadana
Two unidentified persons, early yesterday morning, carried out an acid attack on the Ayurvedic Commissioner of the North-Central Province Dr. Lokuliyanage Chandrakumar Alwis, causing burn injuries to his face and eyes.
The 52-year-old Commissioner was attacked at his official residence on Dharmapala road in Anuradhapura.
The Ayurvedic Commissioner’s wife, Champika Ranasinghe (49), said the attack had been carried out on a contract given by a person who coveted her husband’s position.
A weeping Champika told The Island, while arriving at the eye hospital in Colombo with her children, that the assailants had planned to carry out the attack on Thursday (21) and had gone to their official residence in Anuradhapura, but had failed as the family was in Colombo. “Then the suspects rang my husband and told him that they needed to get medicine from him for an ailment. So, my husband asked them to come this morning as we were planning to return yesterday itself to Anuradhapura.”
She said that the brutal attack was part of a conspiracy against her husband as there had been pressure from unknown persons for him to quit the post. There had also been slanderous posters put up to tarnish her husband’s name. She stressed that they had informed the higher authorities and even the police of the matter.
She said she wondered why such a brutal attack had been launched on her husband who always rendered an honest service without even thinking about their security.
She said that her husband never closed the gate at night as he was very concerned about patients.
When asked what she expected from the police, she said, “I want them to bring those responsible for the attack to justice.”
She said the incident occurred around 4.45 a.m.
The Commissioner, was first rushed to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital and immediately transferred to the Eye Hospital in Colombo.
Anuradhapura Hospital director Dr. W. Atapattu told The Island that the Commissioner had been transferred immediately to Colombo as his eyes and face had received severe burn injuries. Asked whether the injuries he sustained were life threatening, he answered in the negative.
According to police, at the time of the attack, the Commissioner’s wife, 20-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son had been in the kitchen of their official residence.
According to investigations, the two attackers came there on a motor cycle and fled the area in no time after carrying out the attack.
The Anuradhapura police are conducting investigations. No arrests had been made at the time of going to press.
South Africa should follow India in acting to end violence against women
Feb. 21 2013,
Even as the position of women continues to evolve in Canada and the West, recent events in two key emerging economies – India and South Africa – are poignant reminders of the challenges that remain in developing countries.
The horrific and deadly gang rape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi last December, and the shooting of model Reeva Steenkamp in Pretoria on Valentine’s Day have brought to the fore the issue of sexual violence and the particular dangers women face. Ms. Steenkamp’s boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee and celebrity Olympian, has been charged with murder.
Both countries are having to confront the public’s anger over alarmingly high levels of violence against women and the deeply ingrained societal biases against women that the two tragedies have highlighted.
India is to be commended, then, for acting quickly to bring in a new law toughening the penalties for rape, and making stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women and children crimes. The legislation reflects the expectation that the state must do a better job protecting women.
This is a defining moment for India, as it rolls out public-outreach and engagement programs, including training police in how to investigate rapes, in the hope that certain behaviours that have long been tolerated, such as groping women on public transport, will change.
South Africa should likewise channel its outrage over the murder of Ms. Steenkamp into political action. The rate of homicides of females in that country is extremely high – five times higher than the global rate, according to the South African Medical Research Council. One-quarter of men have raped a woman.
The country must find new ways to bring up and educate boys and young men, so that they no longer grow up thinking violence against women is acceptable.
Just as India has been spurred to action, South Africa must use the tragedy to push for transformation, and to finally tackle the root cause of endemic gender-based violence and challenge a deeply chauvinistic culture.
Posted by Thavam
