Though suicide has been very alarming in Chitral during the last two decade, but recently new twist has been added to this sad saga i.e., increasing suicide incidents by students on petty domestic disputes or failure on educational front. The recent case of a teenage Zubair Ahmed, a college student, who succumbed to his injuries after an attempted suicide, is a latest case in point.

He was the only child of his parents, who were pressing him to focus on study rather wasting time in company of friends.

Reports said that on the day of his attempted suicide, his mother had scolded him for not studying on which he got extremely angry and attempted a suicide, later succumbed to injuries in hospital.

Earlier, an 18-year-old medical student of D-Pharmacy from Chitral committed suicide due to failure in exams of first year.

Last year, a 9th class grade student of Upper Chitral area jumped into the Chitral River and drowned in a bid to commit suicide. In July last, a teenage student committed suicide in Sahen area of Ayun. Separately, a student from Chitral who was studying at Islamia College Peshawar committed Suicide in Hostel Room.

He was a student of BS Mathematics and obviously there was no issue with him, even his college mates and teachers did not notice he was undergoing any mental stress etc. The student had also complained of any problem or mental stress with his teachers or co-students. Psychologists say that attempting or committing suicide on petty things point to serious psychological issues among students and other people of Chitral, where suicide rate is alarmingly high with as many as 13 cases reported last year. Not only students, suicide rate is unusually high in this mountainous region.

That’s why researcher says that there is an urgent need for conducing conduct mental health surveys and research on this grave issue so that the reasons behind the problem can be determined. On the other hand,  the recent flash floods have multiplied people’s woes, due to which the cases of suicides have further increased in the hilly region. Despite the increase of literacy rate as compared to past, the suicide rate is on the rise with the passage of time in Chitral, posing as dilemma for the authorities and researches. Most importantly, the suicidal tendencies are equally frequent among men, women and teenagers of this far-flung mountainous region and it is mainly the youth who are committing suicides so there is obviously something wrong with the social and economic spheres in Chitral that is taking toll on the lives of its people for decades.

It is very unfortunate that hundreds rather thousands of people have lost lives in Chitral due to suicide during the last two decades and with the passage of time, the rate is further accelerating but till now no preventive measures have been adopted by the either the Federal, or the provincial and even the district government to find out the causes behind increasing cases of suicide by young men and women and form a preventive strategy. As per available reports, two different cases of suicide by women have been reported during the first week of the current month. In the first case, a 20 year young woman from  Kushum village took her life by jumping into Chitral river  while in a similar case reported later, another woman committed suicide recently. Last month, a dead body of young woman who had committed suicide by jumping into Chitral river near Broze point was recovered from waters in Arandu area of Chitral.

Not only women are committing suicide, the trend is equally common among men, and even teenage students from Chitral area. A local Chitral daily, quoting a research study, reported this year that between 2005-2015, around 369 cases of suicide were reported in district Ghizer of Chitral.  Like women and students, young Chitrali men are also prone to suicide incidents and in June this year, young man of 30 years age took his life by jumping into the Chitral river at Osiak.

However, when analyzing the overall suicide rate, it is mainly women who take their lives frequently and according to available researches, Chitral has seen increasing suicide cases among young woman, who form 78 per cent of all suicide cases in the area.  One study shows that about 150 women jumped into river Chitral or took poisonous pills or hanged themselves to death in a span of seven years i.e., from 2010 to 2017. There are also some other studies like the one done by the Aga Khan Rural Support programme which conducted a study on the subject in 2008 and it had found that as many 28 women committed suicide in a single year. To find out the main problems that prompt women to jump into rivers so frequently, more studies are needed to determine the real causes behind this heinous practice. One way to do so is to talk to the survivors of attempted suicide cases, who can narrate the ordeals due to which they had attempted to end their lives.

Sometime back, an NGO working in the area used this method and talked to one Naghma Pari, a survivor of attempted suicide, This 21-year-old girl hailing from a small village in Lower Chitral had disclosed that it were mainly the economic miseries which prompted her to make an attempt at her own life. She also disclosed forced marriages to be a reason behind such cases.

As per reports, she was married off at the young age of 13 against her will as she was too young and the main reason for her marriage was the poverty and destitution. The victims is said to have spent an impoverished life in her parents home as they were poor people and after marriage she imbroglio into daily domestic disputes with her in-laws, who were also poor people and were living in abject poverty which led her to make an attempt on her own life as she thought it was the only way to get rid of the miserable life. Moreover, her husband was thrice of her age and the age difference was also a problem and a factor.

In the wake of frequent suicide issues in Chitral, there is an urgent need for finding out the reasons behind these gruesome incidents every now and then and such the government in collaboration with the NGOs should ensure a thorough research on the issue which has risen to alarming level.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 07 2022

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