INTRODUCTION:
Since May 2014, The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) began collecting data on heinous crimes from the local press covering the national spectrum. These are the crimes committed by those who, in most of the cases, are not necessarily career criminals or militants. Yet, they indulge in such offences because of the values and traditions they consider as a license for their crimes.
The perpetrator of a crime is as important as the crime itself, though the nature and severity of the crime are significant considerations as well. For sociologists and criminologists, these factors serve as a measuring tool that help assess how criminalized a society is. The basic purpose of making this report is to provide tangible data to help social introspection. This report covers incidents of crimes like child abuse, violence against women, honor killings, and others. The criteria we use for selection of heinous crimes often restrict us to record only those crimes that fall within that category. For example, only those incidents of rape are recorded where the victims are minors or blood relatives, as the actual number may be much higher due to unreported cases. Similarly, a case of honor killing can be ignored if the perpetrators are unknown. The crimes against children are recorded without any discrimination. So, in a sense, this is a selective report and cannot be used as a source for complete information about any crime included in it. The reports that appear in the local newspapers like The News, Dawn, and Express Tribune are the primary source of this document.
Errors and omissions, a possibility in all statistical work, can occur. However, such mistakes do not grossly affect the basic objective of this report.
NOTE: All data is from January – June, 2015.
Report prepared by:
Mohammad Nafees
Senior Research Fellow
Center for Research and Security Studies
NOTE: Readers can approach CRSS for source of any information included in the report. Please send your requests/comments/questions to: info@crss.pk.
LIST OF ACRONYMS
| # | Acronyms (in alphabetical order) | |
| 1 | AJK | Azad Jammu and Kashmir |
| 2 | CRSS | Center for Research and Security Studies |
| 3 | FATA | Federally Administered Tribal Areas |
| 4 | GB | Gilgit Baltistan |
| 5 | KP | Khyber Pukhtunkwa |
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
FATALITIES AND INJURIES OF HEINOUS CRIMES
Vulnerability, local traditions, and law enforcement deficiencies were the apparent causes of the heinous crimes that left 153 persons dead and 97 injured during January-June 2015. Some incidents, despite no casualties, are also included in this report because of the heinous nature of the crime (Table 01).
| Table 01: Nature of heinous crimes – January-June 2015 | ||||
| Root cause of crime | Events | Dead | Injured | Total |
| Child abuse | 40 | 22 | 24 | 46 |
| Violence against women | 34 | 22 | 22 | 44 |
| Brutality | 28 | 41 | 24 | 65 |
| Honor Killing | 19 | 24 | 4 | 28 |
| Juvenile crime | 10 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| Violence against men | 8 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Infanticide | 7 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| Misuse of power | 7 | 2 | 11 | 13 |
| Militancy | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Patricide | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Superstition | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Intolerance | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Moral issues | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Lack of freedom | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Custodial killings | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Lawlessness | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Shameful act | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 164 | 153 | 97 | 250 |
Nearly half of these crimes were committed by blood relatives or close relatives (Table 02).
| Table 02: Perpetrators of heinous crimes – January-June 2015 | ||||
| Relation with victims | Number of events | Fatalities | Injured | Casualty |
| Unknown | 58 | 33 | 78 | |
| Close relatives | 36 | 40 | 57 | |
| Close acquaintance | 33 | 31 | 59 | |
| Blood relation | 28 | 43 | 46 | |
| Distant acquaintance | 6 | 2 | 6 | |
| Distant relatives | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Law Enforcers | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Self | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Total | 164 | 153 | 250 | |
The largest numbers of victims are minors or infants (Table 3). Among the victims of heinous crimes there were 13 wives and 9 husbands who lost their lives during this period. Among the alleged or convicted perpetrators, husbands appeared to have committed the highest number of crimes leaving 18 persons dead and 6 injured. The crimes committed by female spouses were nearly half of the husbands’ crimes. Additionally eunuchs were attacked by armed men and subjected to gang rape in Swabi.
| Table 03: Victims of heinous crimes – January-June 2015 | ||||
| Victims | Events | Dead | Injured | Total |
| Minor | 49 | 33 | 29 | 62 |
| Politicians | 1 | 11 | 8 | 19 |
| Wife | 13 | 12 | 1 | 13 |
| Girls | 12 | 4 | 7 | 11 |
| Infant | 4 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Uncle & his family | 1 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| Unknown Man | 5 | 4 | 6 | 10 |
| Husband | 9 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Unknown Boy | 8 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| Family members | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Unknown Woman | 6 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Players | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Man/Woman | 2 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Husband & children | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Sister & her children | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Wife & daughter | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Sister & paramour | 2 | 4 | 4 | |
| Brothers & Brother-in-law | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Nephew | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Daughter | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Sister | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Son-in-law | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Eunuchs | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Policemen | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Farmer’s daughter | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Grand mother | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Boy Friend | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Father | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Niece | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Daughter & son-in-law | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Land owner | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Mother & daughter | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Sister & lover | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Brother | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Ex Husband | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Farmer | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Others | 15 | 11 | 6 | 17 |
| Total | 164 | 153 | 97 | 250 |
Heinous crimes varied from shooting the victims to burning them alive. Other reports included incidents of being beaten-to-death and to axed-to-death. Acid attacks disfigured 11 persons in the country during this period and 33 rape cases were committed. Ten victims of rape were either minors or teenagers. Of 33 rape cases, 14 were cases of gang rape. Other cases involved kidnapping before the rape and strangulation/murder after the rape.
| Table 04: Methods of heinous crimes – January – June 2015 | ||||
| Methods | Events | Dead | Injured | Total |
| Shot down | 35 | 70 | 17 | 87 |
| Killed | 10 | 14 | 2 | 16 |
| Beaten to death | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Dumped bodies | 3 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Rape and killed | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Thrown in canal | 2 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Burnt alive | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Strangulated | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Gang raped | 13 | 2 | 11 | 13 |
| Axed to death | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Dead body | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Killed after ransom | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Poisoned | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Raped and strangulated | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Slaughtering | 4 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Commit suicide | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Rape | 10 | 1 | 8 | 9 |
| Acid attack | 6 | 0 | 11 | 11 |
| Tortured | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Beaten up | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Set on fire | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Unleashed dogs | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Attacked | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
| Kidnap and rape | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Thrown in fire | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Abduct/sale of children | 1 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Gang rape and killed | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Sold | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Beaten and hanged | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Cut into pieces | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Death in Jihad | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Decapitated body | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hanged | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Murder | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Others | 20 | 5 | 12 | 17 |
| Total | 164 | 153 | 97 | 250 |
HEINOUS CRIMES – AFFECTED LOCATIONS
Provincially, the crime rate in all provinces appears to be in proportionate to the population except in KP where it is higher (Table 05 and 06). However, the nature of crimes and the number of districts affected by heinous crimes varied in each province. It will be discussed separately in the provincial chapters.
| Table 05: Heinous crimes data of provinces – January – June 2015 | |||||
| Province | Events | Fatalities | Injured | Casualty | % of total casualty |
| Punjab | 106 | 66 | 61 | 127 | 50.8 |
| KP | 25 | 42 | 16 | 58 | 23.2 |
| Sindh | 24 | 33 | 17 | 50 | 20 |
| Balochistan | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Islamabad Federal Territory | 3 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2.4 |
| FATA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.4 |
| Azad Jammu and Kashmir | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.4 |
| Gilgit Baltistan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pakistani immigrant to the US | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.8 |
| Total | 164 | 153 | 97 | 250 | 100 |
| Table 06: Heinous crime rate in comparison with the population – January – June 2015 | |||
| Province | Est. Population (in millions) in 2010 | % of population | % of heinous crimes |
| Punjab | 94.36 | 53.41 | 50.8 |
| KPK | 26.93 | 15.24 | 23.2 |
| Sindh | 38.92 | 22.03 | 20 |
| Baluchistan | 7.62 | 4.31 | 2 |
| AJK | 3.87 | 2.19 | 0.4 |
| GB | 1.27 | 0.72 | 0 |
| FATA | 3.69 | 2.09 | 0.4 |
| Source: BISP Demographic Directory – Government of Pakistan | |||
MINORS AND INFANT VICTIMS
Almost one third of the victims of heinous crimes were minors and infants. Among 43 victims, 13 were infants that were either discarded as newborn babies or killed by their parents. Among the perpetrators of crimes, fathers were responsible for 25% of the casualties. Another 20% were committed by both parents, stepfathers, and in one case a mother was also involved. Gender distribution reveals that nearly three fourths of the victims were females. Nearly 50% of these crimes were committed in the province of the Punjab, while 36% were in, 11% in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa and 4% in FATA. Lahore, the capital city of the Punjab, had the highest number of victims while in the province of Sindh, the districts of Sukkur and Hyderabad had more victims than in Karachi.
There were some incidents of heinous crimes against minors where the number of victims was indeterminable. On May 29, 2015, a report appeared in the press claiming that a ghastly trend is emerging the city of Peshawar where children go missing and are found dead later with their limbs severed[1].
Another report that appeared on April 26, 2015 contained information about a young militant who was accorded with a heroic burial on April 16 and a day later a conference was organized by an extremist outfit at the outskirts of Peshawar which was attended by 2,000 people. During the conference, nearly 30 young boys enlisted to fight the “American Infidels” in Afghanistan. For some, this is an act of heroism. For others it’s a heinous crime to use teenagers for such purposes[2].
A good piece of news emerged from Kasur, where a wedding hall’s management refused to allow the ceremony to take place unless documentation proved the bride was not a minor[3].
Heinous Crimes – Punjab
Heinous crime occurrences in the province of the Punjab were the highest among all other provinces and regions of the country but they were in proportionate to the population of the province. As many as 106 incidents of heinous crimes were recorded in the Punjab during this period that left 66 persons dead in 24 districts of the province. Comparing these figures with the figures of violence for the same period in 2014, 18 districts previously reported heinous crimes. While the fatalities from violent crimes in the Punjab was 7% of the total fatalities in the country, the percentage of heinous-crime victims was 50% of the total number of victims in the country (Tables P-07 and P-08).
| Table P-07: Fatalities from militant-violence in provinces – January-June 2015 | |||
| Region | Fatalities | Injured | Casualty |
| FATA | 1093 | 358 | 1451 |
| Sindh | 712 | 163 | 875 |
| Balochistan | 377 | 145 | 522 |
| KP | 226 | 257 | 483 |
| Punjab | 127 | 120 | 247 |
| Islamabad | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| GB | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| Total | 2545 | 1052 | 3597 |
| Table P-08: Heinous and violent crime rate in comparison with the population | ||||
| Province | Est. Population (M) in 2010 | % of population | % of heinous crimes | % of militant crimes |
| Punjab | 94.36 | 53.41 | 50.8 | 6.87 |
| KPK | 26.93 | 15.24 | 23.2 | 13.43 |
| Sindh | 38.92 | 22.03 | 20 | 24.33 |
| Baluchistan | 7.62 | 4.31 | 2 | 14.51 |
| AJK | 3.87 | 2.19 | 0.4 | 0 |
| Islamabad | n/a | n/a | n/a | 0.31 |
| GB | 1.27 | 0.72 | 0 | 0.22 |
| FATA | 3.69 | 2.09 | 0.4 | 40.34 |
District-wise, Faisalabad, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Multan, Pakpattan, Gujranwala, and Okara are the districts where the victims of heinous crimes were the highest compared to other districts of the province. Among the victims, minors were the most affected age group, and females were the highest affected gender (Table P-09).
| Table P-09: Victims of heinous crimes in Punjab – January-June 2015 | |
| Victims | Casualties |
| Minor | 27 |
| Unknown Girl | 10 |
| Wife | 8 |
| Husband | 7 |
| Unknown Woman | 7 |
| Unknown Boy | 6 |
| Family members | 5 |
| Unknown Man | 4 |
| Sister & her children | 4 |
| Wife and daughter | 4 |
| Nephew | 3 |
| Sister | 3 |
| Daughter | 2 |
| Daughter & son-in-law | 2 |
| Father | 2 |
| Infant | 2 |
| Land owner | 2 |
| Man/Woman | 2 |
| Policemen | 2 |
| Sister & lover | 2 |
| Wife & brother-in-law | 2 |
| Wife & father-in-law | 2 |
| Wife/son | 2 |
| Grandmother | 2 |
| Boy friend | 1 |
| Others | 14 |
| Total | 127 |
Heinous Crimes – Balochistan
Among all provinces and regions, Balochistan appeared to have had the least number of victims of heinous crimes. During the first six months of 2015, 5 persons faced heinous crimes in two districts of the province; Quetta and Nasirabad. One 8 year old girl was raped and brutally killed by the assailant in Hazara town of Quetta while two Christian girls were the victims of an acid attack in Quetta. In Nasirabad, a brother had killed his sister and her paramour in the name of honour.
Heinous Crimes – Sindh
Over 50% of the victims of heinous crimes in Sindh were minors and infants. Sukkur district had eight child casualties, followed by Hyderabad and Karachi with 6 casualties each (Table S-10). Eight newborn babies were dumped in Larkana (5) and Karachi (3). One infant girl (age 1.5 years) was reportedly raped and strangulated in Karachi; while a minor boy (age 4 years) was beaten to death by his stepfather in Karachi. A minor girl (12 years old) was gang-raped in Hyderabad, and in Ghotki district a minor girl (age 10 years) was ordered by the local jirga to be bartered by his father for being “karo”. In most cases, fathers and parents were involved in committing these crimes. From gender point of view, 50% of the victims were females and 34% were males. The remaining victims were mixture of both sexes. Out of eleven districts of the province that experienced violent crime during this period, seven districts were found to have had heinous crime victims.
| Table S-10: Victims of heinous crimes in Sindh – January-June 2015 | |
| Victims | Casualty |
| Minor | 18 |
| Infant | 8 |
| Unknown man | 6 |
| Brothers/Brother-in-law | 3 |
| Farmer’s daughters | 3 |
| Wife | 3 |
| Unkown boy | 2 |
| Mother & daughter | 2 |
| Son-in-law | 2 |
| Unknown girl | 1 |
| Husband | 1 |
| Unknown teenage | 1 |
| Total | 50 |
Heinous Crimes – KP
KP witnessed 58 persons (42 dead and 16 injured) become victims of heinous crimes during this period, with 26% reported from Tank district, followed by Charsadda (19%), and Peshawar (16%). Unlike other provinces, the highest victims of heinous crimes in KP were neither minors nor any other family members but politicians who suffered deaths and injuries. During a celebration of local body election in Tank, unidentified persons (suspected rivals) carried out indiscriminate firing that left several persons dead and injured. Similar incidents in Kohat and Nowshera also caused fatalities[4]. Minors accounted for the third largest victims of heinous crimes in KP. However, there were two cases against minors and young boys in the province where the number of victims was indeterminable. KP is the only province in the country where male victims of heinous crimes are nearly 50%.
| Table K-11: Victims of heinous crimes in KP – January-June 2015 | |
| Victims | Casualties |
| Politicians | 19 |
| Uncle & his family | 10 |
| Minor | 8 |
| Boy | 2 |
| Wife | 2 |
| Man/Woman | 2 |
| Sister/Paramor | 2 |
| Players | 4 |
| Eunuchs | 3 |
| Husband | 1 |
| Daughter | 1 |
| Girl | 1 |
| Niece | 1 |
| Ex. Husband | 1 |
| Unknown | 0 |
| Husband and father | 1 |
| Total | 58 |
Heinous Crimes – AJK, Islamabad, FATA, and GB
AJK
In Muzaffarabad a teenage girl was shot dead by her cousin, allegedly in the name of honor.
Islamabad
| Table I-12: Heinous crimes in Islamabad – January-June 2015 | ||
| Nature of crime | Incidents | Details |
| Violence against men | 1 | Male shot and killed by a female |
| Intolerance | 1 | Female killed husband and three daughters, injured son before suicide |
| Elitism | 1 | Influentials riding in a Land Cruiser (LWK-8888) abused a police constable and abducted him when he asked for their identification |
| Total | 3 | |
The gender divide of crimes in Islamabad shows that majority of crimes were committed by females.
FATA
In FATA, the body of an eight-year-old boy, who had gone missing four months ago, was found in the Ashkhel area of Landikotal Tehsil in Khyber Agency.
GB
No incidents of heinous crimes were reported in GB.
MISC
In New York, a Brooklyn cab driver was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for arranging the honor killings of two family members of a man who helped his daughter flee from Pakistan to the United States to escape an arranged marriage.
CONCLUSION
The heinous crime reports from the province of the Punjab topped all other provinces in every aspect. The number of districts affected by heinous crimes was greater than the number of districts affected by violent crimes during this period. In other provinces, this scenario was different. For example, Balochistan had 2 heinous crime affected districts, vs. 28 districts that were affected by violent crimes (Table 13).
| Table 13: Provincial districts affected by heinous and violent crimes – January-June 2015 | ||
| Province | Number of districts affected by | |
| Heinous crime | Violent crime | |
| Punjab | 24 | 18 |
| Balochistan | 2 | 28 |
| KP | 12 | 20 |
| Sindh | 7 | 11 |
In KP, male victims of heinous crimes were greater than the female victims while in all other provinces females were most affected across the gender divide (Table 14).
| Table 14: Victims of heinous crimes by gender – January-June 2015 | ||
| Province | Male | Female |
| Punjab | 53 | 73 |
| Balochistan | 1 | 4 |
| KP | 34 | 20 |
| Sindh | 21 | 29 |
Blood relatives, close relatives, and close acquaintances were found to be the highest perpetrators of heinous crimes in all provinces (Table 15).
| Table 15: Perpetrators’ relations with victims of heinous crimes – January-June 2015 | ||||||||
| Perpetrators’ relation with victims | Casualties | |||||||
| Punjab | Balochistan | Sindh | KP | Islamabad | AJK | FATA | US Pakistani | |
| Blood relations | 22 | 2 | 14 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Close acquaintance | 19 | 3 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Close relatives | 35 | 0 | 6 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Distant acquaintance | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Political activists | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Distant relative | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Self | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Law Enforcers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown | 42 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total | 127 | 5 | 50 | 58 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
In the province of the Punjab, 13 forms of heinous crimes were committed by the perpetrators, higher than Sindh (10), KP (7) or Balochistan (3) (Table 16).
| Table 16: Nature of heinous crimes in provinces – January-June 2015 | ||||
| Nature of crime | Casualty | |||
| Punjab | Sindh | Balochistan | KP | |
| Brutality | 26 | 4 | 0 | 35 |
| Child abuse | 27 | 11 | 1 | 6 |
| Militancy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Violence against women | 35 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Infanticide | 2 | 9 | 0 | 2 |
| Violence against men | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Honor killing | 11 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
| Superstition | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Juvenile crime | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Misuse of power | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Moral issues | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Lack of freedom | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Patricide | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Custodial Killings | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lawlessness | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 127 | 50 | 5 | 56 |
The crimes like violence against women, brutality, child abuse, and honor killing are found to be common in all provinces. The cases of violence against men seem to be escalating. Among the crimes committed against men, the murder of husbands by wives was most prominent. There were other incidents, such as an acid attack on a husband by his wife, and the case of abduction of a man by his former wife.
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[1] http://tribune.com.pk/story/894014/ghastly-trend-bodies-of-missing-children-continue-to-turn-up/
[2] http://tribune.com.pk/story/876329/where-angels-fear-to-tread-the-business-of-sending-young-boys-to-wage-war
[3] http://www.dawn.com/news/1186894/wedding-hall-admin-disallows-suspicious-nikah
[4] http://tribune.com.pk/story/895557/unpleasant-turn-seven-killed-eight-injured-as-unidentified-men-attack-celebration-party