Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: On Sunday, 14-year-old Mudasir Ahmed Shah had loitered around for too long in the market in Chanderseer village in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. When he went back home that afternoon his mother scolded him for not studying, unsuspecting that it would be disastrous.
Minutes later the boy’s parents were praying hard for him to survive as they frantically rushed him to the nearest hospital. The ninth class student had gone into his room, angry at his mother, and hanged himself there.
But they were just unlucky – Mudasir died on the way.
“His parents say the boy was hot-headed and known for sudden outbursts,” Station House Officer, Kreeri, Bashir Ahmed told freepress.
This is the eighth reported suicide in less than two weeks in the valley and also the fourth by a teenager. Suicide is a taboo subject in the valley where the majority follow Islam; 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.
Eight people have killed themselves, by hanging, consuming poison or by jumping into the river, since March 30. Four among them were teenagers.
Only three days ago, a 16-year-old girl hanged herself at her home in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
