Pakistan schoolboy's self-immolation raises alarm over poverty

ISLAMABAD — As the school term ended across Pakistan last week, proud families flocked to their children’s grade-promotion ceremonies much as they do in the United States. For a 13-year-old named Kamran Khan, the occasion promised special honors: He ranked first in his class in his rural village.

But instead of attending, Kamran set himself on fire with gasoline – ashamed, his family said, that he was too poor to afford a new school uniform as he entered the seventh grade.

Even in a country where 60 percent of the population lives in deep poverty, the boy’s self-immolation raised alarm. Kamran, who died Saturday from his burns, has become a symbol of the hopelessness of families crushed by high unemployment, rising prices for staples such as wheat and skyrocketing fuel costs.

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