HRCP report: Nearly 33.5% decline in Karachi killings

The quarterly report says nearly 532 people were killed between January and March this year

KARACHI:

Killings in Karachi, in the last three months, have witnessed a 33.5 per cent decline as compared to last year.

This was stated in a report compiled by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)

According to the HRCP report, from January to March 2015, around 532 people were killed or died in incidents of violence in the city. This includes men, women and children who were killed in sectarian attacks, personal enmities, robberies, police encounters and karo-kari.



Last year, between January and March, nearly 800 people had been killed. Around 120 died in encounters with law enforcement agencies while 44 were killed in robberies and due to personal enmities. The report claims that around 102 bodies were also found.

Around 157 men were killed by law enforcers in the first three months of 2015. In comparison with last year, this figure has gone up. Approximately 120 men were killed by law enforcers in the first three months of 2014.

Talking to The Express Tribune, HRCP’s vice-chairperson in Sindh Asad Iqbal Butt said that there was a decline in killings as compared to 2014 as law enforcement agencies had become more active.

“Political activists who were involved in criminal activities are being arrested by law enforcers,” he said. “This has brought down the total number of killings and murders in the city.” He added that while numbers for targeted attacks and killings had gone down in Karachi, street crimes such as robberies had increased.

Research done by the HRCP claimed that from January to March of this year, 68 people were killed in targeted attacks while 43 bodies were recovered.

Since the beginning of 2015, around 33 policemen have been killed. Last year, the number was as high as 46. Twenty men died because of their sectarian affiliations. Another 20 were killed because of their political affiliations, 17 people were kidnapped and killed by their abductors while 14 men were killed due to gang-based violence in Lyari.

In the last three months, around 25 women were gunned down — 13 of these women were killed by unidentified men. Nine children were also killed - two of these children were killed in bomb blasts, one died because of a stray bullet and another due to personal enmity. Around four children died due to negligence while one was raped and killed.



Last year, 30 children were killed in bomb blasts, aerial firing incidents and personal enmity. Around 55 women were killed in 2014, two of the highest figures - 14 and 23 - showed that the women had been killed by relatives and unidentified men. The report also showed that last year, around 10 women had died in bomb blasts.

The HRCP report also showed that around 34 men died in other incidents. Roughly 14 men died on the railway tracks, 12 died due to a drug overdose or consumption of poisonous liquor and seven were killed by stray bullets.

In comparison with last year, this figure has increased. In 2014, around 17 men were killed by stray bullets, six men were killed on railway tracks, four died due to a drug overdose and one man died in prison.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2015.