February 29, 2008	Friday	Safar 21, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 28: Citizen Commission for Human Development Director Farah Pervez Saleh has said violence against women is on the increase in Punjab due to an inadequate and discriminatory legal framework.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Thursday, Ms Saleh said 901 women -- 565 married and 336 single -- had been murdered in the province by their fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, in-laws and unidentified people in 2007 but police had arrested only 122 accused. Up to 688 women -- 200 married and 488 single -- were kidnapped last year.

She said newspaper reports published in 2007 showed that 500 women -- 263 married and 237 single -- had committed suicide. Of them, 245 women took poisonous pills whereas 132 took poison directly. As many as 457 women were raped, and of them 293 were raped by their family members but only 295 cases were registered and 94 accused taken into custody.

She said 317 women had been tortured in the province in the last year. Newspapers carried reports of torture and sexual harassment of 205 women but police registered only 132 cases and arrested only 17 accused. As many as 100 women -- 63 married and 37 unmarried -- had been burnt in the province last year. Police, however, registered only 47 cases and arrested only three accused. —Reporter