Driven by poverty: Woman kills self, 5-year-old daughter

Woman jumped into well after her spouse refused to pay for the treatment of their physically-challenged daughter.

EKKAGHUND:

A woman jumped into a well with her five-year-old daughter in this sub-division of Mohmand tribal area after her spouse refused to pay for the treatment of their physically-challenged daughter.

The couple had two other daughters. Shamim Bibi and daughter Waiba were residents of the Aqrab Dag area. “Her husband, Khan Muhammad, is a daily wage earner in a mine,” Malik Sahib Shah, a tribal elder from the area, told The Express Tribune.

Explaining the cause for the suicide, he said that the couple had fought over a monetary dispute. “She asked her husband to get medicine for their daughter but did not have any money,” said Shah.

Shamim’s brother-in-law Qawi Khan told The Express Tribune that he had three nieces, one of whom was physically-challenged. “My brother is a daily wager. Let alone affording expenditure of the treatment, he cannot even get a day off because there would be no food on the table,” he said. “I saw Waiba’s body floating on the surface of the water while I called out to the villagers for help,” said Shah. “We could not find Shamim anywhere, till we realised she might have committed suicide along with her daughter,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2012.