9,364 fall victims to police torture in 9 years

KARACHI - “As many as 9,364 cases of police torture were reported during the last nine years”, claimed Madadgaar Helpline in its report issued on Wednesday.

According to the report, within the last nine years, from January 2000 to June 2008, there were 9,364 cases of police torture. Out of the total, 231 cases were reported in 2000, 555 in 2001, 996 in 2002, 838 in 2003, 1,260 in 2004, 1,356 in 2005, 1,662 in 2006, 1723 in 2007 while till the mid of current year January to June 743 cases of police tortured were already recorded by Madadgaar data base team.

Report said that 286 girls, 403 boys, 7,425 males and 1,250 females were the victim of police torture during the last nine years. The provincial break-up of the figure shows that 100 cases were reported from Balochistan, 474 NWFP, 5,729 Punjab and 3,061 from Sindh.

The report mentioned the figures of the cases from January to June 2008, in which 743 cases of police torture were reported nation-wide. In which 51 boys, 13 girls, 176 women and 503 men fell victim to the police torture. The provincial break-up of the total figure indicates that 4 cases were reported from Balochistan, 29 NWFP, 406 Punjab and 304 cases were reported from Sindh. Crime and violence ratio is increasing in province of Punjab very rapidly as the majority of cases were from Punjab. The trend of less reporting is seen from Balochistan and NWFP but it does not mean that there is less violence in these Areas of country.