SRINAGAR, June 28: A teenage girl died on Thursday when she hanged herself at her home, the third such incident in past three days in Kashmir, where suicide rate has gone alarmingly high.
Earlier this week a girl and a women died when they separately consumed poisonous substance in Kulgam and Dardgund areas of South Kashmir.
The number of such cases is rising in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, although Islam strongly forbids suicide.
The fresh incident took place in Heerpora area of Shopian where a 13-year-old girl hanged herself at her home, a police spokesman said.
“She was shifted to a district hospital in critical condition where she breathed her last,” he said and declined to identify the girl.
Doctors and sociologists say the number of people committing suicide has soared since the start of militancy over two decades ago.
“The tolerance levels among people has decreased to a large extent,” Dr. Abeena Nawaz of Kashmir’s only psychiatric hospital said.
Nawaz said there is no data about the number of people who have committed suicide so far as no extensive and long-term surveys have been conducted.
At least seven people, mostly women, have died by suicide in the last ten days, causing serious concerns in a soceity which was once considered easy going.
On June 21, a 35-year-old lady of Uri in North Kashmir and another lady of Srinagar committed suicide.
On 19th June, a mother killed herself by consuming poison but only after feeding some to her three-year-old daughter in Kulgam district of South Kashmir.
Also Read: Declining faith a reason for rising suicides in Kashmir
Also Read: In Kashmir 230 suicides by women reported in 24 months
