12,580 people murdered during last year: HRCP

ISLAMABAD: As many as 12,580 people were murdered, 581 kidnapped for ransom and 16,977 were abducted during last year in the country, said annual report of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) launched here on Thursday.

Presenting salient points of the report, Secretary General HRCP, I..A Rehman said that 109,383 registered Afghan refugees returned back to Afghanistan while 1.6 million registered refugees are still based here.

He said that according to the report seven million people were forced from their homes in the floods. Even as floodwater receded in many areas, millions remained in tents, with their houses destroyed and livelihood lost.

In education sector, the report stated that Pakistan's literary rate was recorded at 57 percent during last year. Flood damaged more than 10,000 schools in the country and between 1.5 million to 2.5 million students were affected by it.

The report said that 163 attacks were reported on educational institutions while militants killed 22 teachers in Balochistan between January 2008 to October 2010.

Around 10 million children were affected by the massive floods, 2.5 million of them younger than five years of age, the report said adding, 1,154 juveniles were detained in the prisons across the country.

170 juveniles committed suicide across the country and another 76 attempted suicide, the report unveiled.

Lauding the services of women parliamentarians the report said that women parliamentarians remained the most active legislators, introducing nine private members' bill in the third parliamentary year, and 22 out of total 26 in the second parliamentary year that ended on March 16, 2010.

The report also maintained that the provincial governments did not hold local government elections in 2010 using delaying tactics.

It was also pointed out that domestic violence (Prevention and Protection) bill lapsed because it could not be submitted to the senate in time. Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 was adopted but on the contrary not a single women parliamentarians was part of the committee formed to draft 18 Amendment Bill.

The report mentioned that 791 women were killed in the name of honour during last year while 2,903 were sexually assaulted with the maximum number of cases i.e. 2,903 in Punjab.

719 women committed suicide and 414 attempted suicide but their lives were saved. The report also claimed that one women died every 30 minutes in Pakistan due to pre, neo- or post natal problems. 1,047,948 cases of tuberculosis were registered in the country.

According to it there were 18 million registered hepatitis patients whereas over 1.6 million malaria cases were reported annually.

Polio cases reported during the period were 143. There were more than seven million diabetics and as many as 1.5 million people were blind. There were 150,000 thalassemia patients and over 7,000 patients were infected with the dengue virus and 31 people died of the disease.

Around 114,000 patients of swine flu were reported whereas 97,400 HIV/AIDS cases had been diagnosed while 5,000 AIDS patients had been registered.

The report claimed that 34 percent of the people suffered from a psychological disorder. 2,399 committed suicide in the country and another 1,174 attempted suicide mainly due to stress or anxiety on account of illness, domestic disputes, financial problems or unemployment etc. (APP)