Infant dies after Karachi family attempts suicide due to financial woes

Surviving family members are in critical condition and undergoing treatment

KARACHI:

A two-year-old girl died on Friday as a family attempted suicide in Karachi’s Surjani Town due to financial difficulties and unemployment.

As per details, a long-time unemployed man, Azhar, took extreme measures after being fed up with the worsening financial conditions and poisoned his two young daughters, wife and himself.

The family fell unconscious after consuming the poison and was shifted to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where the younger daughter died during treatment. The other family members are in critical condition.

Azhar was later shifted to Jinnah Hospital, while his wife and daughter are undergoing treatment at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

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SHO Sarjani Town Bashir Wadu stated that 40-year-old Azhar Khan, a resident of Sector 11 of Surjani Town, consumed poison along with his wife, 35-year-old Fatima, two-year-old Umm Ayman and four-year-old Umm Haniya.

The SHO furthered that Azhar was unemployed for a long time and due to this reason quarrels were taking place in the house.

Azhar's sister-in-law stated that her husband had received a call from the 40-year-old who informed them that the entire family had consumed poison.

In a similar incident earlier this month, a man committed suicide by allegedly throwing himself and his minor daughter into the Abu Dhabi canal in Muzaffargarh.

Sources said that Muhammad Salim, a 53-year-old resident of Ahmedpur Sharqia, had a quarrel at home with his wife over poverty and financial issues. He took his 4-year-old daughter to the canal, before binding her to his body and jumping in the water channel.