KP govt to probe rising number of suicide cases in Chitral

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has sprung into action to deal with the soaring number of suicide cases in Chitral.

According to the provincial health department, the district health officer (DHO) of Chitral wrote to them regarding the growing number of suicide cases in the region. 

The provincial government has decided to form a committee to investigate the matter. 

During the last six months, more than 12 people reportedly committed suicide, out of which 70% were women, said Chitral district nazim Maghfirat Shah. He added there was a need to probe the actual causes of suicides in the district.

The officials part of the committee include Dr Azmatullah from the KP health department, DHO Chitral, psychiatrists and psychologists.

The tendency to commit suicide has been on a rise in Chitral for some time. In the cases recently reported, some of the people reportedly committed suicide after getting their matriculation and intermediate results.

For instance, in August, three students reportedly committed suicide after getting disheartened by their intermediate exam results.

However, a study from 2016 published in Khyber Medical University Journal states that women had almost double the rate of suicide than men in Chitral. As per the findings, the cause was family and marital issues while the methods used included drowning and hanging.

The study reads that suicide rate among married women was high. According to the findings, women committed suicide because of their unhappy marriages – their unstable relationship with their spouses making it difficult for them to manage personal and household responsibilities. 

The disharmony in marriage continued as the girls’ parents seldom supported them, neither was there any option for divorce, which left suicide as the only way out, according to the study.