Over 500 women and girls were the victims of sexual assault in the past 12 months, leaving painful and unsightly scars on the face of Karachi.
The startling statistics were gathered with the use of records kept by medico-legal staff members employed by the city’s three main hospitals, the Dr. Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, and the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) (ASH).
Data kept by the Karachi Police Surgeon Office revealed a startling rise in rape and murder cases there. Additionally, there was a trend toward more muggings where persons were shot over resistance.
The police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed told local media that 3,649 women who had been sent to hospitals for medical evaluation had become victims of domestic abuse while 513 women had experienced sexual assault.
According to the police surgeon, 1,291 bodies of people died for a variety of reasons and were transported to the city’s three main hospitals.
The total number of post-mortem examinations performed, she continued, was a “misleading” number for actual deaths resulting from a variety of causes because the relatives/people typically refused to allow an autopsy and preferred to remove the body before the necessary medical and legal procedures were finished.
The police surgeon provided information about the three hospitals, stating that up to December 29 there were 12,511 different medico-legal cases brought to the JPMC.
She stated that 10,951 different medico-legal cases were brought to the tertiary care hospital known as Abbasi Shaheed.
A total of 1,318 occurrences of female physical assault or domestic abuse and 145 cases of female sexual assault were all reported to the ASH by December 29.
Around 554 bodies brought from various locations were autopsied by hospital doctors.
She continued by stating that 6,787 medical-legal matters were handled by MLOs at the Dr. Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital in Karachi. Of those, 393 involved domestic violence, and 101 involved the rape of women.
A total of 197 bodies were transported to the hospital for post-mortem examination, while 10 bodies were exhumed per the instructions or rulings of the relevant courts.
