June was Karachi's deadliest month with 313 killings: HRCP

Report challenges Rangers claims that fatalities have dropped in the past three months.

KARACHI: There was no respite from killings in the city during the first six months of the year 2013, as 1,728 casualties were reported in different incidents, according to a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan report released on Monday.

Based on data from the past six months, the HRCP report declares June as the deadliest month of the year so far with 313 people killed. The highest number of political killings, which is 50, also took place in this month.

Presenting a dismal picture, the report also challenges the statistics submitted by Rangers director-general Rizwan Akhtar in the Supreme Court in which he claimed that target killings had gone down in the last three months.

There has been an alarming increase in the crime rate as compared to the six-monthly figures of 2012, when over 1,200 people died. In 2011, the count was even lesser with 1,110 such tragedies.

Between January and June this year, most of the people that have been killed, which is 545, were those with no political affiliations, but were gunned down under the guise of target killings. On the other hand, out of the 174 activists killed, the highest number of workers, which is 104, belonged to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

In the past six months, around 92 police officials have been killed. Similarly, there has been a rise in the number of bodies being dumped as 101 such incidents were reported.

Ninety two people were killed in bomb blasts, while 41 lost their lives in the Lyari gang war. Sixty nine people have been killed by law-enforcement agencies, the report stated. Moreover, around 78 children and 83 women died in different incidents.

Sindh HRCP chairperson Amarnath Motumal while expressing grave concern said that curbing violence did not seem to be a priority of the authorities. “In the past six months, the number of citizens being killed every month was over 250,” adding that these deaths were only seen as statistics rather than the loss of valuable lives. It shows the failure of the state.

Political affiliations of the 719 men targeted:

MQM                              104

PPP                                12

Sunni Tehreek               20

ANP                               9

Jamaat-e-Islami            8

PML-Functional             1

PML-Nawaz                   4

PML-Quaid                    2

MQM-Haqiqi                  4

ASWJ                              4

JSQM                              1

PTI                                 2

Non-political                  545

Total                              719

source: HRCP

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2013.