MORE than six people in West Yorkshire are victims of ‘honour attacks’ each week, according to new figures.

The region has been ranked the third highest in the country for the ‘honour attacks’ with 350 occurring last year, according to figures obtained by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (Ikwro).

The charity said the statistics do not give the full picture of the levels of “honour” violence in the UK, but are the best national estimate so far.

The data, taken from 39 out of 52 forces, was released following a Freedom of Information request by Ikwro.

In total, eight police forces recorded more than 100 honour-based attacks last year.

The Metropolitan Police saw the highest number of incidents (495), followed by 378 in the West Midlands, 350 in West Yorkshire, 227 in Lancashire and 189 in Greater Manchester.

A quarter of police forces in the UK were unable or unwilling to provide data, Ikwro said.

“This is the first time that a national estimate has been provided in relation to reporting of honour-based violence,” the report concluded.

“The number of incidents is significant, particularly when we consider the high levels of abuse that victims suffer before they seek help.”

Huddersfield found itself under the spotlight of so-called honour violence in 1988 when 19-year-old Sharifan Bibi and her lover, 44-year-old Hashmat Ali, vanished.

The couple, who had been living at Elmwood Avenue in Highfields, disappeared in December that year and were never seen again.

In November, 1991, a jury at Leeds Crown Court heard about the grim secrets of a “house of death” after forensics teams dug up the cellar of a Thornton Lodge property owned by her brother Abdul Haq.

No bodies were ever found but police believed the pair were cut up and burned in the cellar of the Crosland Street home.

Haq and another brother Mohammed Saleem were jailed for life for murder.