Keeping fingers crossed for 2011 after bloody 2010

Keeping fingers crossed for 2011 after bloody 2010

• Targeted killings up by 175 percent in 2010

By Urooj Zia (Pakistan Today; 06 January 2010)

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 Mohajor Qaumi Movement – Haqiqi (43), Awami National Party (44), Pakistan People’s Party (32), 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 Tehrik 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 Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Jaesh-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.

Children who died or were killed in 2010
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 gang-war	02
During ethnic killings	02
Infants found in garbage dumps	02
While crossing railway tracks	01
	77