PESHAWAR: Of the total 8,000 cases of violence against women in Pakistan 650 cases were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the year 2010, said Aurat Foundation in its annual report released here on Tuesday.

The report titled `Violence against Women (VAW) in Pakistan 2010` was launched here at the Peshawar Press Club wherein the foundation`s project director Shabeena Ayaz gave details of the report.

Giving breakup of the 8,000 VAW cases in the country, she said that 5,492 cases occurred in Punjab, 1,652 Sindh, 650 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 79 Balochistan and 127 cases in Islamabad.

Flanked by programme manager Shereen Javed, Ms Shabeena said that the ratio of violence against women in the country had increased by 33.17 per cent from January to December 2010.

She said that these cases included 2,236 of kidnapping/abduction, 1,436 murder, 486 domestic violence, 633 suicide, 557 honour killing, 928 rape, 74 sexual abuse, 32 acid throwing, 38 burning and 1,580 cases of miscellaneous nature of violence against women.

Ms Shabeena said that Punjab province topped the list with most VAW cases, which included 1,890 kidnapping, 758 killing, 246 domestic violence, 424 suicide, 233 honour killing, 741 rape and gang rape, 39 sexual assault, 20 acid throwing, 33 burning and other 1,108 cases of minor nature.

She said that Sindh reported the second most VAW cases that included 246 cases of kidnapping, 308 murder, 136 domestic violence, 140 suicide, 266 honour killing, 157 rape and gang rape, 34 sexual abuse, three acid throwing and 362 cases of miscellaneous nature.

The foundation official said that in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 77 cases of kidnapping, 328 murder, 89 domestic violence, 54 suicide, 22 honour killing, five rape and gang rape, one acid throwing, three burning and 71 cases of miscellaneous nature were reported. However, she said that no case of sexual assault was reported in the province.

She said the in Balochistan, two cases of kidnapping, 15 murder, four domestic violence, eight suicide, 36 honour killing, six rape and gang rape and five acid throwing cases were reported, but no case of sexual abuse was recorded in the year 2010.

Ms Shabeena said that 21 kidnapping/abduction cases had been reported in Islamabad in 2010 besides 27 cases of murder, 11 domestic violence, seven suicide, 19 rape and gang rape, one sexual assault, three acid throwing and one case of burning.

She stressed the need for proper legislation to prevent the growing incidents of violence against women in the country and urged the parliamentarians to play their due role for curbing the menace from the society.

Source: Dawn

Date:7/6/2011