KARACHI: A total of 1643 cases of different types of violent acts, from honour killing to custody of children and maintenance, were filed by women from across the province since July last year, a report has claimed.
The report listed cases registered from July 1 last year to date, in the women complaint cells and Benazir Bhutto Centre for Women in Sindh.
13 cases of honour killings have been reported in Sindh with eight such crimes being from Jacobabad alone. Karachi had three reported cases of this crime.
Officials claimed that the practise of honour killing was seeping slowly into the provincial capital, showing that the people settling in the city from various areas of the province were practising it with the same brutality.
Hyderabad, Sindh’s second largest city, also had a case of honour killing, while the rest were reported from Benazirabad.
Five cases of rape or gang rape were also reported. Three of them were from Jacobabad while one was from Benazirabad and one from Shikarpur.
Five cases of sexual assault were also reported: two from Jacobabad and one each from Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur.
Out of 252 cases of domestic violence and harassment, Benazirabad had the most with 55 cases. Jacobabad followed with 45, Mirpurkhas with 35, Hyderabad with 32, Karachi with 23, Larkana with 12, Khairpur with 10, Naushahro Feroze with nine and Sanghar and Shikarpur with one each.
A single case of women trafficking was reported from Jacobabad.
There were 18 cases of violence in custody, of which nine were reported from Benazirabad, five from Hyderabad, and four from Naushahro Feroze.
Two cases of child marriages were reported from Hyderabad and Larkana.
Three cases of ‘unlawful or fake marriages’ were reported — two from Jacobabad and one from Hyderabad.
Karachi and Hyderabad reported five cases each of murders or kidnapping. Another four such cases were reported from Jacobabad and one from Sanghar.
A single case of acid throwing on a woman was reported from Sukkur.
The report claims the department’s facilities did not receive any complaint of forced conversion of non-Muslim girls and their marriages.
26 women were referred to shelter, 21 women were wounded and needed medical help in various districts, 119 women sought legal aid, 102 others looked for police protection and another 154 for legal suggestions.
The report further says that 173 cases of custody of children or maintenance, 168 cases of dissolution of marriage/khula/recovery of dowry articles/dower amount and 268 cases pertaining to family matters were filed.
There were also some 75 cases related to property and 107 others were related to miscellaneous issues.
The overall leader vis-a-vis all such issues was Benazirabad with 457 cases, followed by Sukkur (286), Hyderabad (213) and Karachi (196).
Shikarpur turned up fewer cases (six) while no complaint was received as per the report from the remaining 13 districts of Sindh.
Officials, however, said the report also showed that women in some districts were aware of the presence of such government facilities where they could file their complaints.
They conceded that much work was to be done as around half of Sindh’s districts had not produced such complaints because of deficiency of such facilities available to them.
“We are expanding our network in all parts of Sindh, which will be there to receive complaints and ensure action is taken by the relevant authorities in soonest possible time,” a senior official said.
