Anak Agung Pratama Dewi was walking home from school yesterday when a man lashed out at her with a knife before bolting off on a motorbike.
Hysterical but luckily not far from home, the sixth-grade student of Denpasar Public Elementary School rushed home to her mother, who was shocked to discover the girl’s injuries: five-centimeter-long cuts in both of her calves.
The perpetrator is reported to have trailed his victim after she left her school friends, turning into an alleyway towards her house. “When I walked, someone followed me from behind,” she told Jawa Pos. Though Dewi claims to be unsure as to the identity of her attacker, she described him as wearing ‘a white jacket, white helmet and face covered with a mask,’ in a report by Nusa Bali.
The victim’s mother, Ida Ayu Komang Widiastuti suspects that her daughter’s attacker could be someone close to the family, a man who has previously tried to chat with the victim over social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, but who was blocked by the victim. “I have reported the case to Denpasar Police. I am 100 percent sure I know who hurt my child,” she claims in the same report by Nusa Bali.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner I Wayan Arta Ariawan of Denpasar Police Criminal Investigation Unit, confirms that the report has been received and investigations are underway.
Sadly, this is not the first time leg-slashing has hit headlines on the island. After similar incidents in 2015 and 2016, women were cautioned against riding scooters with bare legs.
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