By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The speakers in the consultative meeting on ‘Rising incidents of suicides among youth in Chitral’ held by district police here on Tuesday, named unemployment, poverty, failure in marriage as per desire, excessive use of drugs, misuse of social media and deviation of youth from Islamic teachings and social norms.
Chaired by district police officer captain (retired) Mansoor Aman, the meeting was attended by the members of civil society organizations, noted religious leaders and academicians and intelligentsia.
The absence of darul aman for the aggrieved women in the area to provide them with a place of consolation and support and the lack of awareness campaigns about suicide in the society coupled with the prevalence of the trend of committing suicide in the face of hardships or desperation were yet another factors as stated by them.
They said that the religious leaders and teachers must sensitize the parents on how to keep a vigilant check and watch on their children and encourage them to freely discuss with them on the issues of different natures while the distance between them pushed the frustrated youth folk to take the extreme step of taking one’s life.
It was also proposed that special lectures and brainstorming sessions should be held in schools and colleges of Chitral in such a way that the students may disseminate the message to the society in large and create an environment in which the youth may despise the act of suicide and may not think it as one of the sources of relief from worries.
Speaking on the occasion, the DPO said that district police has already taken a number of steps to arrest the number of suicides which included the setting up of darul aman under the aegis of social welfare department and zero tolerance towards drugs peddling in the district.
“Tens of drug peddlers have been sent behind the bar during the last couple of months and their network has been shattered effectively so that the peddling of drugs could be discontinued.
The district police is doing every effort to know the reason of each and every incident of suicide to ascertain the real reason behind the death and all legal formalities including conducting post mortem examination of the dead body are fulfilled.
The district police was ready to work with the civil society to know the major causes than induced suicide in the area and taking measures to efficiently check them”, he said.
