Suicide rate in Chitral becomes alarming

CHITRAL: The incidents of suicide in the district have reached an alarming stage over the past few months and needs drastic steps to overcome the situation. Majority of the suicide incidents include young men and women, which has set alarm bells ringing across the region. People from various walks of life have cited increasing sense of deprivation among the youth as the prime reason of increase in suicides in Chitral.

The tough competition in education sector between the students is also blamed for an increase in suicide trend among the youth. The students get disheartened after obtaining lesser marks than that of their parents' anticipations and hence they commit suicide. The recent increase in suicide rate was witnessed after the declaration of results of intermediate examinations announced in August last. Suicide by six female students was reported in less than a week after the results' declaration. The body of a female student, who had committed suicide, was recovered from River Chitral after two days of occurrence of the incident.

The income generation opportunities are very limited in the mountainous district and most of the dwellers doing private and other odd jobs in downtown districts and other provinces to financially support their families and make a living.

Despite this, the ratio of education in the district is very high. According to some experts, the limited job and income opportunities created sense of deprivation among the young people, which is driving force for suicide among this class.

According to the police statistics, a total of 44 suicide attempts were reported in the corresponding year. According to police sources, 20 suicides occurred in the district in the past three months.

Majority of the suicide incidents included young male and female students who had secured lesser marks in their schools' examinations. A married woman also committed suicide by jumping into the river. Similarly, a 40-year-old man Sadruddin and resident of Yarkhun had gone missing and later his body was found floating in the river.

The father of two children was stated to be jobless for quite some time and it was considered the prime reason for committing the suicide. The fresh suicide incident involved a youth, which is the second incident occurred in less than a week time.

The civil society organisations and other people have asked the government to send teams of medical and psychological experts to Chitral to find out the causes and recommend remedies to discourage the suicide trend.