MULTAN, Jan 1: Crime against women assumed horrid proportions during 2001 as at least 228 females were killed in various parts of the southern Punjab.

A report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Multan task force, revealed some 90 women fell prey to ‘honour killing’ in as many as 13 districts in the southern Punjab.

Some 11 women were murdered after being subject to criminal assault. Domestic violence, refusal to marriage and contracting illicit relations led to their killing in a number of cases.

Husbands turned out to be the worst enemies for around 47 women while in 34 cases, women suffered the wrath of their brothers. Many were the instances in which women met with the ill fate at the hands of their fathers and uncles. In one reported case, a woman was murdered by her mother.

Around 70 per cent of the women murdered during the year were married. However, most of the 164, who suffered criminal assault, were unmarried. Culprits in most of the cases turned out to be their relatives.

As many as 394 incidents of abducting of women were reported during the year. In majority of the cases, the culprits were either neighbours or relatives. Local landlords were a good many in number.

The report, however, suggested the abduction cases should be separated from cases where girls eloped with their will.

The only category in which males outnumbered females was suicide. Some 115 men committed suicide in this part of the province during the year while the number of women was 50. Domestic disputes poped up as their worst rivals. Several issueless couples opted for such an end. Among youth, poverty, failure in either exams or love affairs led scores of people resorting to annihilation. Strangulation, drowning, setting on fire, all had their share claiming lives.

Exploring the role of police, the report said in most of the cases of crime against women, the agency had appeared to be the tool of exploitation.