A pregnant woman committed suicide after killing her children in Islamkot town in Tharparkar district, Sindh, when she reportedly jumped into a well along with her two children, thus resulting in the death of all three.

Initial reports suggested that Sabhri Dohat, 35, resident of Onyaro village near Islamkot town, threw her eight-year-old son Amir Hassan and three-year-old daughter Kali in the well before jumping herself.

Later the villagers took out the three bodies from the well. The bodies were brought to rural health centre Islamkot, from where they were handed over to their relatives.

According to the villagers, the reason behind this extreme step taken by Ms Dohat, who was pregnant at the time of her death, could be some domestic issues and extreme poverty.

No police report had been registered till the filing of this story.

It is pertinent to mention that during the past four years of droughts in Thar, more that 300 people have reportedly committed suicide.

A local activist Ali Akbar Rahimoon told Dawn that in most cases the victims threw themselves in the wells adding he feared that trend was on the rise in arid zone of the country mainly due to incurring droughts.

“The main reasons behind such extreme steps were poverty, hunger and domestic feuds,” he said. He lamented that mostly such incidents went without any probe or investigation by police.

Commenting on this, SSP Tharparkar Sarfaraz Nawaz Shaikh was of the opinion that the heirs of the victims avoid to register such cases.

“However, I have directed SHOs of all areas to register the FIRs of such incidents,” he added.

The chief executive officer of Health and Nutrition Development Society (Hands), Dr Shaikh Tanweer Ahmed, highlighted the need to focus on the health and nutrition issues.

According to him, such issues are becoming the major cause of “mental disorders and other problems among the inhabitants of the desert”.

Dr Tanweer urged the concerned functionaries of Sindh government to focus on the basic issues of the vulnerable region to avoid such incidents and the unabated deaths of the kids.