Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: A teenage girl has committed suicide in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, police said on Wednesday.
This the ninth reported suicide in two weeks in the valley and five among them are teenagers.
The girl, aged 17, took poison late on Tuesday night at her home in Nowgran Pingal village of Baramulla district.
She was rushed to a local hospital where she breathed her last. Police say the immediate reason for the girl to take her life was not known, but they have begun investigations.
Suicide is a taboo subject in the valley where the majority follow Islam, which denounces suicides; 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.
Many sociologists and psychiatrists have, however, blamed declining tolerance levels and rise in other mental diseases for the growing suicides among teenagers. But they are quick to add that this is a global phenomenon.
“One important factor is the growing exposure to crime and violence through mass media,” says Dr Abeena, a psychiatrist.
Nine people have killed themselves, by hanging, consuming poison or by jumping into the river, since March 30. Five among them were teenagers.
On Sunday, a 14-year-old boy hanged himself to death in Chanderseer village in the same district. Initial investigations by the police revealed his mother had scolded him “for loitering around too much”.
