KARACHI: A newlywed couple in the Pakistani city of Faisalabad died by suicide this week from jumping in front of a moving train after their family could not arrange funds for their honeymoon, police said, while the man’s family said they did not know the reason why the duo decided to end their lives. 

Station House Officer Mazhar Irfan told Arab News the couple, identified as factory worker Sajjad Ali and his wife Fauzia Bibi, had married four months ago but could not afford a honeymoon trip to the hill station town of Murree.

“Ali, a factory worker, had asked his elder brother Fahad for money for the trip. Fahad… couldn’t help,” Irfan said, adding that the couple then went to the railway tracks near the city’s Gatti Station, from where Ali called his brother to say they were going to take their own lives.

“Then they jumped in front of the train.”

The incident occurred around 5:45 a.m. near Nishatabad Bridge on Tuesday, when the Badar Express traveling from Faisalabad to Lahore struck the pair, according to Railways Police spokesperson Kanwar Umair Sajid.

However, Fahad, the older brother of Ali, said he was unaware of the reasons for the couple’s actions.

“I don’t know why they committed suicide… I only found out when people from the area told me someone had died near the railway station,” Fahad said, adding that he was shocked to identify the bodies as his brother and sister-in-law.

The investigation has been closed at the family’s request, Irfan, the SHO, said.

Suicide remains deeply taboo in Pakistan, where mental health services are limited. Official statistics are scarce, but estimates suggest rates may be underreported. 

Citing an analysis of newspaper reports, around 2,295 suicides occurred over 2019-2020, with 14.1 percent linked to financial problems. According to Dawn, the suicide rate rose from 7.3 per 100,000 in 2019 to 9.8 in 2022.

Experts link stealth financial pressure and social stigma to increased mental health suffering across households. Psychiatrists say financial hardship is among the most common suicide stressors for young people in low-income communities in Pakistan. 

With few mental health resources, just one psychiatrist per roughly 500,000 people and less than 1 percent of health budgets devoted to mental care, Pakistan struggles to support those in crisis.