Violence in Pakistan kills over 3,000 people in 2009
At least 3,021 people were killed and 7,334 others injured in 2,586
incidents of terrorism that took place in various parts of Pakistan in
2009, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said Monday.
In its annual report confided to Xinhua, the full text of which is
expected to be released on Tuesday, the HRCP states that among the
killed, 647 were women who were victim of honor killing.
About one-third (1,296 people) of the total killed were perished in
108 incidents of suicide attacks.
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Pakistani security officials examine the wreckage of an
auto-rickshaw following a bomb blast in Quetta on March 22, AFP |
The report also shed light on other incidents of violence such as
target killing and kidnapping.
In April 2009, the murder of three Baloch nationalist leaders sparked
a massive wave of protests all over Balochistan, the volatile and
mine-rich province of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan.
At least 16 people were killed and many others injured in different
incidents of shooting during the protest, the report stated.
Some 164 incidents of target killings took place in Balochistan, in
which 118 citizens and 158 security officials were killed while 83
citizens and seven security officials were injured.
In the eastern province of Punjab, 224 cases of kidnap for ransom
took place during 2009. At least 163 persons were kidnapped in the
southeastern province of Sindh, 241 in Balochistan and 592 in North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) during the year.
In various incidents of violence, 747 people were killed in
Pakistan’s largest southern city of Karachi, and out of them, 291 were
victims of target killing.
HRCP report suggested that the number of internally displaced persons
(IDPs), mostly from Pakistan’s tribal areas, swelled in the wake of
military operations in Swat, South Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and
adjacent areas in the country. At the end of 2009, there were 1.25
million IDPs including 500,000 children, the report stated.
Nearly 40,000 IDPs of Balochistan returned to their homes in 2009,
while more than 40,000 were still displaced.
Only 50,000 Afghan refugees were repatriated to Afghanistan in 2009
as the process slowed down, owing to bad security situation in the
country. There still were 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in
Pakistan.
The movement of ordinary citizens residing in the insurgency-
stricken areas of Swat, Malakand and the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas bordering Afghanistan was seriously affected, HRCP stated.
As several conflict-affected areas were declared out-of-bounds for
aid workers, many NGOs kept their workers away from these regions.
Since 1987, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has developed to
become a broad-spectrum, countrywide human rights body. HRCP publishes
its reports on human rights’ status in Pakistan every year.
Xinhua |
