PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- The provincial high court Wednesday banned the sale of acid in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In ordering the ban, Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan said acid was being used as a weapon, mostly to target women, the newspaper Dawn reported.
Acid attacks appear to be especially common in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province in northern Pakistan that borders Afghanistan. In 2012, 150 attacks were reported in all of Pakistan, including 30 in the province's Mardan district.
In one high-profile case this year, an 18-year-old actress, Bushra, had acid thrown in her face. Her family says the attacker was a local TV producer who invaded their home and threw the caustic chemical at the sleeping young woman.
The Acid Survivors Foundation in Islamabad said 45 percent of attacks stem from family disputes and 17 percent from rejected marriage proposals.
