DIRITTO ALLO STUDIO GIRL BLINDED IN KANDAHAR ACID ATTACK

GIRL BLINDED IN KANDAHAR ACID ATTACK.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A girl was blinded Wednesday morning when six teenagers were doused with acid on their way to school.
In hospital, the girl shook with pain when medicine was dripped into her eyes in a vain attempt to save her sight.
The Taliban have denied involvement in the 8 a.m. attack, but claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bombing here later that killed six people.
Two men on motorcycles targeted the girls as they walked to school on the western outskirts of the city, said one of the victims, Bibi Atifa, 16.
"They stopped their motorbikes and took some kind of acid from their pockets," said Bibi, a Grade 8 student. "They sprayed it in our faces."
Eighteen-year-old Shamia was blinded by the acid, which the girls first thought was water until their eyes began to hurt.
"You see the situation, it's very bad," said Shamia's mother Malina, crying. "It's a very painful and terrible situation. Her sin was that she was going to school."
Family members of Shamia and Bibi said they would not let the girls return to school.