LAHORE: Crimes against women accounted for 4.8 percent of all criminal cases registered in Punjab during the first six months of 2026, compared to 3.7pc filed during the whole year of 2025, according to official crime statistics furnished by the police in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application.
The data shows that Punjab police registered 20,114 cases of crimes against women out of 420,251 criminal cases filed between Jan 1 and June 30, 2026. In comparison, 41,358 such cases were registered out of total 1,127,624 criminal cases during 2025.
Among crimes against women, insult to the modesty of a woman remained the most frequently reported offence. Police registered 14,657 such cases during the first half of 2026 with 27,724 arrests against 30,674 with 58,888 arrests in the whole year of 2025.
The province recorded 4,446 rape cases during the first six months of 2026 compared with 8,553 in 2025, suggesting that if the current pace of such crimes continues, the annual total could slightly exceed last year’s figure.
Similarly, 940 gang-rape cases were registered during the reporting period against 1,922 in 2025, while 53 cases of robbery-cum-rape with murder were reported compared to 152 during the previous year.
Cases of rape with murder stood at 14 in the first half of 2026 against 50 in 2025. The data also showed two cases of Vani during the first six months of 2026.
Overall, Punjab police registered 1,762 murder cases during the first half of 2026 compared with 4,015 during 2025. Terrorism cases in the province declined to 92 from 271, while kidnapping-for-ransom cases dropped to 23 from 85.
The data further shows 5,814 kidnapping cases and 13,208 cases of abduction for adultery registered during the first six months of 2026, while 12,595 and 25,310, respectively, were registered in the last year.
The police registered 32 cases of blasphemy in 2025, while only three such cases were filed during the first six months of current year. Similarly, 110 cases of desecration of the Holy Quran were registered last year. However, 40 such cases had been registered during the first half of this year.
The data reveals 43,131 cases of robbery reported in 2025 with 55,594 arrests, out of 92,105 involved suspects and 10,023 such cases with 14,002 arrests out of 22,477 suspects during the first six months of 2026.
The statistics were presented by the police in response to an RTI application filed by Advocate Abdullah Malik with the Punjab Information Commission (PIC) seeking category-wise crime data for 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Mr Malik told Dawn that the police took almost nine months to furnish the data and that too incomplete.
He alleged that the police deliberately failed to provide conviction rate data, despite being requisitioned, in these crimes only to hide their poor investigation.
The lawyer said the data showing an increase in the crime against women has shattered the Punjab government’s claims regarding the performance of the ‘controversial’ Crime Control Department (CCD) since its establishment in the start of 2025.
A separate report published by the Punjab Commission on Status of Women (PCSW) also shows over 20pc increase in Gender Based Violence (GBV) in 2024 as compared to 2023. It reveals the GBV cases decreased from 34,854 in 2022 to 28,721 in 2023. However, in 2024 the number of such cases rose to 34,702, which include cases of murder, honour-related crime, acid attack, rape, abduction/kidnapping and child marriage.
The year 2024 saw 111.66pc increase in gang-rape cases, while 164.44pc rise in child marriages as compared to the previous year’s rates of such crimes.
The police registered 30,851 illegal drugs-related cases in year 2025 with the arrests of 29,130 suspects involved. During the first half of the current year, as many as 13,690 drugs-related cases had been registered with the arrests of 13,876 suspects.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2026
