KHAIRPUR: Abject poverty caused by the persisting lockdown forced a woman to attempt joint suicide with her 18-year-old out-ofwork son in Pir Mohammed Shah Ludhani village near here late on Friday night.

The woman, Mehnaz Shaikh, 50, and her son, Shaukat Shaikh, 18, jumped into Abul Wah (irrigation channel) to kill themselves. Some villagers, upon receiving the information, started efforts to rescue them but succeeded only in taking out Shaikh alive from water. A search for his mother was continuing till Saturday evening, about 36 hours af ter it was started.

Shaukat Shaikh told local reporters that the lockdown had rendered him without a livelihood as the date market (Khajoor Mandi), where he used to work as a labourer, stood closed for more than two months.

He said his father died in the meantime, about a month back, but their neighbours had to arrange for his funeral as he had no money for the last rites.

The youth said his mother decided to take the extreme action when they had run out of food and had been starvingforfour days.

Residents of the village told reporters that a large number of families in the area were undergoing a similar ordeal but no one from government or local administration had bothered so far to do the needful even for their survival.