GILGIT: Speakers at a seminar held here on Saturday called upon the Gilgit-Baltistan government to take measures for controlling increasing suicides in the region.

The media and communication department of the Karakoram International University organised the event titled ‘suicide awareness and prevention and media reporting’.

Dr Khalil Ahmed, the KIU acting vice-chancellor, suggested organising seminars, debates and counselling sessions to develop a mechanism to prevent suicides in GB. He said students of the university should play their role in creating awareness among local residents about the grave issue.

On the occasion, local mediapersons said suicide cases were increasing across the region, but no research or study to identify the reasons behind the incidence had been conducted.

They said according to informal data available over 1,000 people, majority of them women, had committed suicide in Ghizer and Hunza districts from 2010 to 2018. They said a big number of such cases were never reported.

They demanded setting up a helpline to trace the causes of suicides, saying it was pathetic that GB had neither any shelter home for accommodating women victims of violence or family courts to provide them relief.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2021