Victim of poverty: Woman attempts murder-suicide with two minor daughters

Says husband works in Karachi but does not send any money to support them.

MANSEHRA: A woman attempted to take her own life along with those of her two minor daughters by pushing them into Kunhar River near Garhi Habibullah Bridge on Tuesday over abject poverty and her husband’s apathy, said the police. The mother was pulled back from jumping in at the last minute.

Police quoted Saleh Khan and Chowdhry Sajjarat of the same village saying they were sitting on the river’s bank when they saw a woman cross the bridge with two minor girls. They added they then saw the girls fall into the river one after the other.

Saleh Khan said he and his friend jumped after the girls to save them and managed to pull them back to the bank. They were shifted to Garhi Habibullah hospital where they were provided emergency treatment for minor injuries.

Khan said some villagers forcefully stopped the girls’ mother, Roshan Bibi*, 32, from jumping into the river after her daughters. Speaking to the media at the hospital, Roshan Bibi said her husband Zaman of Kahli village was working as a mason in Karachi, but had refused to send any money back home for several months. As a result, Roshan said she was unable to feed her daughters, let alone have them attain education.

"I cannot beg anymore. It hurts my pride to ask my brother and other relatives to support me," she said  as she wept, adding she decided to end the life of her daughters and herself to escape the constant misery.

Police later produced Roshan Bibi and her daughters before the court of judicial magistrate where they refused to return home, after which the magistrate sent them to Darul Amaan, a shelter home in Abbottabad.

(Name has been changed to protect identity)

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.