KARACHI: 1,336 cases of violence against women reported in six months
KARACHI, July 6: The incident of violence against women are rampant in the country and it is obvious from the fact that during the first six months of the current year print media reported 1,336 cases of physical abuse and 266 cases of sexual abuse against women, says a press release of Madadgaar helpline, a project of lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), issued here on Thursday.
It said out of total reported 1602 cases of violence against women, there were 595 cases of murder, 207 cases of rape, including gang-rape, 712 cases of injury by severe torture, and 28 cases of harassment were published in the national and provincial newspapers.
It said 271 such cases were reported in January, 213 cases in February, 264 cases in March, 302 cases in April, 246 cases in May while 306 cases of women abuse were reported in June this year. The breakdown of data revealed that 595 women were brutally murdered during January to June of 2006 and out of reported cases, 89 were reported in January, 97 in February, 91 in March, 93 in April, 116 in May, while 111 women were murdered in June of 2006.
It said most of the total cases, 1029, were reported in Punjab, 410 in Sindh, 135 in NWFP and 28 cases were in Balochistan. The leading cities reporting these cases are Karachi with 156 cases, Lahore with 131 cases, Gujranwala with 120 cases, Sargodha with 110 cases, Sialkot with 51, Faisalabad with 46, Rawalpindi with 32, Hyderabad with 24 and Islamabad reporting 18 cases violence against women.
It said out of total reported women abuse cases 821 women were married, 66 were unmarried, 33 were widows and 13 were divorced, while the media did not mention marital status of 669 female victims. The data further informed that in 489 cases of women abuse, the perpetrator was the acquaintance of the victim, in 203 it was husband, in 84 cases it was dacoit, in 68 cases it was neighbour, while in 49 cases, the crime was committed by the in-laws, in 40 cases it was brother, in 36 cases it was son, and in 13 cases it was the father of the victim.—PPI
