At least 565 women and girls in Pakistan died in so-called honour killings in 2006, the countryÂ’s main rights organisation said today, nearly double the number it recorded the year before. The sharp increase from 287 in 2005 was due "at least in part" to expanded data collection, the privately funded Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in its annual report. However, it said many more cases may have gone unreported and has estimated in the past that the annual total may be about 1,000.| One is too many, but they don't really know. I bet there are plenty that escape attention, especially in the backwoods of Wazoo and the North-West Frontier. |
In the report released today, the commission said at least 475 of last year’s honour killings followed accusations of “illicit relations". Sixty of the dead were minors. Arrests were made in only 128 cases, it said.