A 20-year-old young man shot and killed himself on Saturday, adding to the suicide death toll that has seen an alarming uptick in Balochistan this year. It is still not clear what incentivized the youth to take his own life, but there are analysis that depression and economic strain might be the culprits.
According to reports, the 20-year-old, identified as Najeeb s/o Bilal Rakhshani, was a resident of the Killi Sahibzada area of Balochistan’s district Noshki. A vibrant young man, Najeeb unexpectedly committed suicide, plunging his loved ones into a deep bout of depression and grief. Though it is not clear what motivated him to take such a drastic step, but most such cases are attributed to depression which usually results from a lack of basic facilities and employment throughout Balochistan.
Suicide rates have seen a major rise in Balochistan in 2022, and most of the victims are young adults, usually in their early twenties or thirties. On August 5, a woman in the Aapsar area of district Kech committed suicide for unknown reasons. The police also reported a suicide in Kech in June where a man had hanged himself to death.
Cases of suicide have been reported in other areas of Balochistan as well, like Pasni, where a young man was found hanging from a tree, and Kalat, where a 15-year-old teenage boy slit his throat in an attempt to take his own life. In Barkhan, a young man killed himself due to the lack of employment.
A second-year student in Khuzdar, identified as Irfan s/o Ghulam Rasool Baranzai, committed suicide in January this year after he could not register his name for the final exams as he could not afford the fee. A few weeks later, his father hanged himself to death after he could no longer tolerate the grief resulting from the separation from his young son.
In its 2020 report on Balochistan, the Huma Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated that at least 1735 people committed suicide in Balochistan. Of these, 1086 were men who took their lives mostly due to unemployment, and 649 were women who killed themselves due to family disputes and pressure.