MULTAN, July 22: As many as 262 men and 125 women were killed while 201 women were subjected to criminal assault in south Punjab during the first half of the current calendar year. This was revealed by a recent report of the Multan task force of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Of the murdered women, some 39 were killed in the name of honour while the others fell prey to domestic violence.

Among the men, 26 were killed in the name of honour, 50 over land disputes, 39 while resisting dacoities, 14 over simmering rivalries, five over matrimonial disputes and 126 during routine clashes.

Of the women raped during the period, 107 were married, 93 unmarried and one was a widow. As many as 324 women — 149 married and 169 unmarried — were kidnapped.

Some 73 children — 37 boys and 36 girls — were either kidnapped or abducted during the period. The reasons as listed by the HRCP report are criminal assault, domestic disputes, ransom and camel race.

Besides, some 67 children — 37 boys and 30 girls — were criminally assaulted, said the report, which added that 33 children were also murdered in that period.

As many as 46 men and 19 women committed suicide in the first six months of 2005. The tendency was found more among the married people. Of those who killed themselves, 13 women and 25 men were married. The report gives financial constraints as the main cause of suicides.

Courts handed down death sentence to 109 people, one of them woman, while 14 people were executed during the period.

As many as 164 people were subjected to police torture during the period. They included 117 men, 46 women and a child. Similarly, some 110 cases of keeping the people in illegal confinement by the police were also reported between January and June 2005. Six people, including a woman, were killed in police custody.

Twenty-one police encounters took place during the period in south Punjab in which 23 alleged criminals and six police officials lost their lives. A pedestrian was also killed during one such encounter.

While highlighting the police atrocities in this part of the country, the HRCP report particularly mentioned the incident in which lips of an under-trial prisoner were stitched by the police in Vehari district.

Sabir Husain was taken to Vehari by the police on June 22 last from the Multan central jail to produce him before a court hearing an abduction case against him. In the judicial lock-up, he and constable Muhammad Din exchanged hot words after the former was beaten up by a fellow prisoner. Later, the police stitched his lips to stop him from protesting against police highhandedness.

The Multan central jail authorities had admitted him from the Vehari police without fulfilling the legal binding of getting examined a prisoner from a medico-legal officer if he returned from the police custody with an unexplained injury. Currently, a judicial probe is under way.

The HRCP report also mentioned an incident in which a blasphemy case was registered against five children aged between 9 and 13 in Haveli Koranga area of Kabirwala in Khanewal district.

They were charged with making an effigy and resembling it with a religious personality. Earlier, a panchayat had ordered to blacken their faces and give them a shoe beating.