ISLAMABAD – Punjab stood first in violence against women in 2010 registering 5492 of the total 8000 incidents reported through out the Pakistan during the same year. This was revealed in a report highlighting the situation of violence against women in Pakistan in 2010 released by the Aurat Foundation and Violence against Women watch Group here on Thursday.
Titled the “3rd Annual Statistics of Violence against Women,” the report splits offences reported from all over Pakistan and highlights the variance of statistics. There is general consensus that the more vulnerable citizens in the country were greatly exploited and made victim of violence. Of 8000 incidents, as many as 5492 cases of violence were reported from Punjab; 1652 from Sindh; 650 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 79 from Baluchistan and 127 from Islamabad.
The figures of Islamabad are alarming given the smaller population and high security maintained in the capital. Of the total incidents, 2236 women were abducted; 1436 women were murdered and 557 were killed in the name of ‘honour’ killing; 928 women were raped; 633 women committed suicide; 32 women were made victim of acid attacks and 38 women were target of stove burning.
The FIR status of the gathered data reveals that 3650 cases reported were registered while 1118 cases were not registered. The remaining 430 cases have no information about whether or not the cases been registered or not.
Unfortunately, the number and percentage of the cases of abduction/ kidnapping are 2236 with a very high proportion while murder combined with ‘honor’ killings total to another ugly figure of 1193.
There were 928 shameful incidents of rape and gang-rape in 2010 and 633 incidents of suicide by women. There were 74 cases of sexual assault, 70 burning and acid throwing incidents in each category and offences of miscellaneous nature were around with a total of 1580 cases of violence in four provincial regions and Islamabad.
According to the details Punjab tops the list of four provinces with total number of 5492, followed by Sindh with 1652 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 650 cases and Balochistan with 79 cases of violence against women. The report has shown that a total number of 5492 incidents of violence against women occurred in 36 districts of Punjab , between January to December 2010.
Of these 5492 cases, there were 758 cases of murder, 233 cases of ‘honor’ killing, 1890 cases of abduction/kidnapping, 246 cases of domestic violence, 424 cases of suicide, 741 cases of rape/gang-rape, 39 cases of sexual assault, 33 cases of stove burning, 20 cases of acid throwing and 1108 cases of violence were of miscellaneous nature. While 4804 cases were registered 177 cases were no registered while the status of remaining 511 cases is unknown.
A total number of 1652 incidents of violence against women were recorded in 23 districts of Sindh during January- December, 2010. A total number of 650 incidents of violence against women occurred in 26 districts of KP during January- December, 2010. Of 650 cases of violence against women in KP, there were 328 cases of murder, 22 cases of ‘honor’ killing, 77 cases of abduction/kidnapping, 89 cases of domestic violence, 54 cases of suicide, 5 cases of rape/gang-rape, 1 case of acid throwing, 3 cases of burning and 71 cases of miscellaneous nature.
Whereas 495 cases of VAW were registered, 71 cases were not registered and 84 cases had no information about FIR status. The study has shown that a total number of 79 incidents of violence against women occurred in 28 districts of Baluchistan between during the last year. Out of the mentioned 79 cases, there were, 15 cases of murder, 36 cases of ‘honor’ killing, 2 cases of abduction/kidnapping, 4 cases of domestic violence, 8 cases of suicide, 6 cases of rape/gang-rape, 1 case of burning, 5 cases of Acid throwing and 2 cases of miscellaneous in nature. The report shows that 76 cases of violence reported were registered while 3 cases were not registered.
There were a total of 127 incidents of violence reported in Islamabad during previous year. Out of 127 cases of violence in Islamabad , there were 27 cases of murder, 21 cases of abduction/kidnapping, 11 cases of domestic violence, 7 cases of suicide, 19 cases of rape/gang-rape, 1 case of sexual assault, 3 cases of Acid Throwing, 1 case of Burning and 37 cases of miscellaneous nature.
Out of 127 cases of VAW, 77 were registered, 21 were not registered while 29 cases have no information. According to the annual report once again in most important 15 districts of Pakistan, Lahore tops the chart with 1089 the maximum number of cases of violence against women followed by Faisalabad with total cases 787 and Sargodha with 374 Shaiekhupura with 323, Rawalpindi with 289, Peshawar 245, Kasur with 227, Okara 208 and Multan 179.
Violence against women continues
