KARACHI – Targeted killings in Karachi increased by 175 percent in 2010 as compared to the previous year, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). While 272 deaths in the city were classified as targeted murders in 2009, the number rose to 748, including 447 political workers, in 2010.
A majority of the victims (64) belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement; while the remaining were from the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (43), the Awami National Party (44), the Pakistan People’s Party (32), the Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto group (four), and various factions of the Pakistan Muslim League (three). Two members of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz were targeted and killed in Karachi during 2010, along with seven members of the Punjabi-Pakhtun Ittehad, and one member of the Punjabi Front. Moreover, the Sunni Tehreek lost eight members to targeted violence during the year, the Jamaat-e-Islami lost three members, and other religio-political parties lost a total of four members.
Among banned organisations, one member each was killed from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Jesh-e-Muhammad, while 20 Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan members were murdered in various incidents during the year.
According to data compiled by the HRCP, which does not take road accidents into account, a total of 1,981 people were killed in 2010, including 1,726 men, 177 women and 78 children. As many as 98 men and 35 women committed suicide during the year, while eight men and 14 women attempted to kill themselves.
Out of the 177 women who were killed throughout the year, 57 were murdered by their own relatives, for a number of reasons. Thirty of these women were murdered over ‘personal rifts’, seven for having a ‘doubtful character’, six for choosing their own partners for marriage, and six women were killed for refusing to marry. Moreover, four women were killed by former husbands, two were sexually abused and killed by their own relatives, while the reasons for the murders of the remaining could not be ascertained.
Reason Number
Falling in manholes or by
electrocution 17
Cross-firing 08
Kidnapped, raped and killed 10
Bomb blasts 06
To punish mothers for alleged
illicit relations 06
Stray bullets 06
By close relatives 05
While resisting dacoits 04
By kite strings 03
Targeted killings 03
In fires 02
During the Lyari gangwar 02
During ethnic killings 02
Infants found in garbage dumps 02
While crossing railway tracks 01
Total 77
