ISLAMABAD, July 15: A report launched by a civil society organisation on the situation of violence against women has shown a sharp increase in incidents of aggression against women in the last three months across the country.

The report launched by the Aurat Foundation at a seminar here on Tuesday is a collection of the incidents of violence against women from April to June under its national programme “Policy and data monitor on violence against women”.

The data has been collected from different sources and one of the main sources is daily Urdu and English newspapers published from different parts of the four provinces, besides state institutions like police stations, hospitals and state-run shelter homes. These cases mostly relate to physical nature of violence or abuses against women.

The report said the number of cases of violence in this quarter was as high as 1,705 compared with 1,321 between January to March.

Highest number of cases, 828, of violence were registered in Punjab. Sindh followed with 301 cases, NWFP with 278, Balochistan with 233 and 65 cases occurred in Islamabad between April 1 and June 30.

Out of the total 1,705 cases, 356 cases were of murder, 135 cases of honour killings, 17 cases of attempt to murder, 356 of abduction, 205 of hurt and body injury, 64 of domestic violence, 126 of suicide, 24 cases of attempted suicide, 107 of rape, 66 of gang-rape, 42 of sexual assault, 24 of custodial violence, 20 of burning, six of acid throwing, four of trafficking, 56 of torture, and 97 cases of various other kinds of violence.

Percentage of cases of murder of women among all these recorded/reported cases was the highest, 20.9, followed by abduction of women, also 20.9. Percentage of hurt and body injury was 11.4 and honour killing 7.9.

According to the report, most alarming increase was in the rate of suicides in the first quarter of the year during which 66 women committed suicide, while in the second quarter 126 women had taken their lives.

Similarly, in the first quarter 90 women were murdered in the name of honour while 135 women were killed in the second quarter under this pretext. The report said that more honour killings had happened in Punjab; 35 cases between April and June compared to 11 cases from January to March.

Rape cases also witnessed a sharp increase in the second quarter; 107 against 60 in the first quarter. Incidents of gang- rape shot up to 66 in the second quarter compared to 19 in the first quarter.