HARIPUR, Jan 3: At least 25 people, including seven women, committed suicide and 19 others were found dead in mysterious circumstances during the year 2005, according to statistics released by a Haripur-based non-governmental organization here on Monday.

Arshad Mehmood, media and communication director of the Human Development Organization, said the data collected by his organisation showed that between January and December 2005 eight men had committed suicide either by hanging from a ceiling fan or shooting themselves. Their action was caused by severe economic hardship and unhappy marital relations, according to Mr Mehmood.

HDO data showed that three other men had ended their lives after being scolded by their elders, but it was not clear why the remaining seven men had committed suicide.

Out of the seven women victims, two were declared mentally retarded by their relatives and five committed suicide so that they could escape from an unhappy and stressful marriage.

Mr Mehmood said that during the years 2002-04, according to records of the seven police stations of Haripur district, 26 women and 81 men had committed suicide, and 24 had been found dead under mysterious circumstances. The cause of these deaths has not been conclusively determined.

In the year 2005 alone, he said, 19 people were reported killed under similar circumstances. Of these 16 were men and three were women.

According to Mr Mehmood, in the category of mysterious killing, the bodies of victims were either recovered from water reservoirs, carried bullet marks or found hanged. However, the police were investigating the causes under section 174 of PPC.

Briefing the newsmen, the HDO spokesman said that 10 women, including three minor girls, were murdered as a result of family disputes, while five others, including two minor girls, were raped and a married woman injured when she was set on fire by her husband and sister-in-law. The perpetrators were reported to be close relatives in all the cases where women were the victims, Mr Mehmood said.

He said the HDO human rights cell would involve religious scholars, academics, journalists, lawyers and HR activists in the campaign against suicides so that the alarming rate of suicides in Haripur could be brought down.