Suicide of three persons in Khairpur: DC’s clarification

SUKKUR: The Deputy Commissioner, Khairpur, has clarified a news item published in The News regarding three cases of suicide in Khairpur, under the headline Three residents of Khairpur commit suicide due to hunger during lockdown.

According to the officer, the cases cited in the story had domestic issues for the suicides and not starvation or unemployment. The deputy commissioner, Khairpur, in his rebuttal said the news has appeared “in different newspapers regarding death of three people due to hunger.” He said that the news was incorrect and was not based on facts.

According to the DC, Sobhal Shar set himself ablaze at Jhatpat, Balochistan, due to domestic issues with his wife and in-laws. He was brought over to Hira Hospital Sukkur and latter shifted to Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Institute of Medical Science, Gambat, where he succumbed to his burn injuries.

The second person, Shahzaib Sahito was the son of a well-off school teacher, Ustad Shahan Sahito, who has properties in urban and rural areas of Gambat and stable economic status. His son set himself on fire on account of family issues. Similarly, the third person Riaz Metlo, 55, was a resident of Shesham Colony, Lukman Khairpur, and was sick for the last 15 days and could not survive. It was a natural death.

None of the aforementioned cases, the DC said, were due to unemployment and strvation, but varyingly different issues.Imtiaz Hussain adds: The News would like to remind the district administartion that Sobhal Shar had left a death-bed statement. According to the staement recorded in hospital, Sobhal had said “he was a labourer who had become unemployed for the last 14 days and could not fetch a way to earn bread for the family.” Sobhal Shar said he endlessly visited the chairman of the union council, relatives and friends but no one offered him any help. Shar said he could not bear watching his starving children anymore and decided to finish his life. The statement of the deceased recorded at the hospital citing the cirucmstances forcing him to take the ultimate step is a death bed statement, which is admissible in court as evidentiary material.