KARACHI, Jan 13: A 12 per cent increase has been noted in suicides in this metropolis with 142 people killing themselves during the year 2002 as compared to 125 during the previous year.

According to the facts and figures, compiled by Dawn and based on the incidents of suicides published in various newspapers, most of the victims resorted to suicide after being overwhelmed by frustration. Most of them were frustrated by financial problems due to unemployment, losses or failure in getting rid of poverty.

It also transpired that the males who committed suicide, in most of the cases, appeared to be one with the responsibility to earn whereas the many of the women victims had lost all hopes for an improvement in their domestic financial position.

The data shows that 36 people killed themselves after failing to find a job and another eight, most of them housewives, did the same following heated arguments with their family members on meeting the domestic expenses. Only four fell prey to failure in their love affair.

The motive for suicide in 31 cases could not established as police did not conduct proper investigations and closed the files in haste.

The statistics show that 98 men and 44 women committed suicide during the year 2002 whereas 87 men and 38 women had killed themselves in the previous year.

During 2002, two men in their mid-20s, hanged themselves in police lockups as claimed by the police. Tariq Hanif, 25, was picked up by Anti-Car Lifting Cell and he died in police custody on Nov 28. Abdul Samad, 26, was found hanging in Mochko police lockup. They died in identical circumstances as the police claimed that the victims had used string of their Shalwar (trouser) and hanged themselves from a ceiling hook in bathroom. To avoid a public uproar, they declared their deaths as suicide and closed the files.

The figures reveal that the rate of the suicide incidents was the highest among the age group of 20-29 years as 45 people, including 17 women, decided to die to get rid of their ‘intolerable’ condition.

The age group of 30-39 comes next with 37 people, 11 of them women, having committed suicide over the last one year.

Suicide by teenagers shows an alarmingly upward trend as 26 teenaged boys and girls ended their lives last year in comparison with 11 during 2001.

Fifteen of the suicide victims were 40-49 year-old and five of them were women. Two women were among 13 others whose age ranged between 50 and 59 whereas three men and one woman were 60 to 69 years of age. Only two elderly, in the age group of 70-plus committed suicide.

Though a variety of methods for suicide were adopted by the victims, most common appeared to be hanging as appeared in the figures of last year’s incidents. More than 70 victims (50.71 per cent) adopted this method.

The other methods included consumption of poisonous substances, selected by 34 persons, jumping off high-rise buildings (11 people), firearms (10 people) and self-immolation (10 people).

Three of the victims opted for drowning, two slit their own throats and one stabbed himself. One person chose to come under the wheels of a train.

Twelve people committed suicide in January 2002, five in February, six in March, nine in April, 12 in May, 17 each in June, July and August, 15 each in September and October, nine in November and eight in December.

It may be mentioned here that the city police have once again failed to provide the required information on suicides during the last year. They also lacked the data or proper record of these cases.