Patterns of homicidal deaths in District Swat

Introduction: The forensic aspects of homicidal deaths demand an inquiry into the various types of such occurrences, as well as the manifest reasons associated with them. In our country, many social and cultural aspects underlie the occurrence of homicidal deaths that need to be properly investigated in terms of patterns and weaponry involved. Objective: To determine the weaponry pattern of homicidal deaths in cases presented for autopsies at Swat. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Saidu Group of Teaching Hospital, Swat from January 2019 to December 2019. The study opted a sample enrollment based on census based sampling using non-probability consecutive sampling. About 220 subjects of homicidal deaths were taken and studied in detail. A pre-designed questionnaire with demographic details was used as the data collection tool. SPSS v 25.0 was used for descriptive data analysis; frequency and percentages were calculated for categorical variables while mean ± S.D. were applied for numerical variables. Results: Out of total 220 autopsies, in 80% cases cause of death was due to firearm injury, followed by sharp weapons in10%, bomb blast and ligature related deaths in 6%, and blunt trauma in 4% cases. The male to female ratio of homicidal cases showed a male predominance, with 86% male and 14% female cases. The cause of death of these cases showed that 27.72% died from injury to brain, followed by Heart & Lung injuries at 18.64%, and the remaining due to injuries of other organs. Conclusion: Firearm was the common weapon of homicidal deaths with male predominance in district Swat; injury to the brain was the leading cause of death.