KARACHI - The outgoing year of 2008 stands comparatively better than the previous ones as no major terrorist attack occurred in last 365 days. However, some nine bomb blasts incidents took place in which about 12 people were killed. But due to the traditional inefficiency of law-enforcement agencies, a spike in crime rate witnessed. The statistics compiled by the Sindh Police have revealed massive spike in various sorts of crimes including murder while 454 additional cases of attempt to murder were also reported in the year 2008. In Sindh, a total of 1,105 people were killed in Karachi alone, a number much higher than that in 2007. The report states that some 294 more murder cases were also reported in which some 43 people were killed in police custody. Interestingly, Karo Kari, against which government used to make tall claims, witnessed an unprecedented rise during the year 2008 as 22 such cases were reported in which some 50 women were killed by their husbands, brothers and fathers. Whereas four mothers were also allegedly killed by their sons while some 49 other people were killed by their relatives. The year 2008 also witnessed various incidents of violence which left 4,982 people wounded while some 2,367 cases of assault were also reported during this period. Similarly, some 242 rape cases were reported out including 42 of gang-rape in the year 2008. About 502 cases of abduction were reported in the year 2008 including some 435 cases of kidnapping and 67 others of kidnapping for ransom. A total of 182 people attempted to commit suicide, out of which 128 persons finished their lives while the rest were saved in year 2008. Number of highway dacoities, bank robberies, burglary, mobile phone snatching incidents also showed an upward trend in the outgoing year. Hundreds of highway robberies were reported in this period besides some 19 bank dacoities, in which 15 took place in Karachi only. About twenty petrol pumps were also looted in 2008 while this number was five in 2007. Similarly, dacoits also looted as many as 4,848 houses and shops in 2008 while in the year 2007 this number much less. According to the statistics complied by the Sindh police, some 9,855 citizens were deprived of their vehicles including cars, motorcycles and others across the province durin the outgoing year. It further revealed that during this period, 3,791 cars and 3,491 motorcycles were snatched in Karachi.