Frustrated, in despair and in agony over watching their families suffer weeks’ long starvation during the lockdown, three labourers of Khairpur, committed suicide.
The three persons, including a daily wager, a factory worker and a labourer, were unemployed for the last 14 days due to the lockdown imposed by the government of Sindh. They were deprived of their daily earnings, which was the only source of subsistence to them. Watching starving children, they first sacrificed their pride by running around people who could have provided help and then went endlessly seeking the much-touted government’s social support outreach. In the end, they just could not take it anymore. How did they commit suicide? A poverty stricken man, resident of Mubarak Shar of Ahmedpur Town, identified as Sobhal Shar, committed suicide by self immolation. Another labourer, Shahzeb Sahitto, who was a resident of Peer Muhalla in Gambat, attempted suicide by self immolation. He was rushed to the GIMS, Gambat, in critical condition after third degree burns over his body. Riaz Muhammad Maitlo also died due to hunger in Khairpur. He worked in a nearby factory which helped him support his family. But eversince the lockdown 14 days ago, he had lost the job. His teary-eyed parents said Maitlo was a decent man who would wake up every day, becoming more despondent as the nights closed in. Today, we found his body, said the weeping father piteously.