CHITRAL: A woman who went missing from her home in Broze village on Monday night is believed to have committed suicide by jumping into the Chitral river.
Rescue 1122 said the woman, daughter of Nadir Shah, was mentally distressed and disappeared from home on Monday night. When the emergency service was informed about it, it sent staff who launched a search operation but could not trace the victim.
The emergency service said the shoes of the woman were found on the bank of the river in Broze and it was believed that she had committed suicide.
The prevalence of suicide tendency among women in Chitral is not a recent phenomenon.
According to a private organization, Human Rights Program Chitral (HRPC), as many as 150 women committed suicide in the region between 2010 and 2017.
In a similar study conducted in 2007-08, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program recorded 29 suicide cases in Chitral.
The study concluded that most of the suicidal cases had resulted from the [deceased] women’s problematic relations with in-laws while living in joint families and shared homes. It added that forced marriages were also one of the reasons behind such incidents.