Maria Latif
SRINAGAR: An unidentified girl hanged herself at her home in north Kashmir’s Baramulla District, police said on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear why she took this extreme step, they said, adding police have registered a case and initiated proceedings.
The fresh incident of suicide, third such in past 12 days, took place in Dobhiwan Mohalla In Baramulla town north of Srinagar.
Suicide is a taboo subject in the devoutly Muslim state; so many suicide deaths are never reported.
But the few figures available offer an insight into the darkest corner of Kashmir’s psyche.
Research from the Psychiatric Diseases Hospital says Kashmir’s suicide rate has increased 40-fold since militancy broke out over two decades ago.
Before 1989, Kashmir’s suicide rate was 0.5 per 100,000 people.
