UNB, Khulna:
Propensity to commit suicide is getting rife among the residents of the district.
A staggering 171 people took own lives in the district in the past one year.
The reasons that were identified to have led to such a big number of suicide incidents include disputes over dowry, fraudulence, depression, failure in examinations and love, unemployment and poverty.
Sources at the office of the Superintendent of Police, Khulna said a total of 171 people committed suicide in different ways in nine upazilas of the district in 2013.
Of them, 127 killed themselves by hanging and the rest 44 by taking poison.
The figure of suicide incidents is 8.55 percent higher than that of the previous year.
A total of 149 people committed suicide in the district in 2012.
Highest 20 suicide incidents in a month was recorded in May in 2013.
The sources also said all the suicide incidents could not be recorded as the victims’ relatives were either in fear of facing legal harassment or remained busy with funeral rituals or apprehended that it will further stain their family reputation.
Otherwise, the length of the numbers would have been bigger.
Khulna Superintendent of Police (SP) Golam Rauf Khan said currently, the tendency to commit suicide has increased in the district, which is not desirable at all and the main reasons behind this trend are family disputes and some social problems.
He also said the instigators of the suicide incidents must be brought to book.
To increase awareness among people about meaninglessness of suicide is essential as well, he added.
Advocate Mominul Islam, Khulna unit coordinator of Bangladesh Human Rights Implementation Committee, echoed the SP’s speech, saying sincere efforts of the law enforcers in thwarting the reasons instigating suicide could lessen suicidal tendencies among people.
