Five
decapitated for practising witchcraft
by Peter Alex Todd
Guwahati:
Workers at the Sadharu Tea Plantation in Assam's northern Sonitpur
District have decapitated five persons of a family who were allegedly
practising witchcraft. The bizarre incident took place this Saturday and
was reported to local police station on Sunday. The decapitated bodies
have been handed over to the police. Sonitpur District is about 240 kms
from Guwahati. Confirming the incident, police said that the executions
were carried out publicly, and added that the dead included 60-year- old
Amir Munda and his four children, including two daughters. Munda and his
family belonged to the Adivasi Santhal community. His pregnant wife and
three children managed to escape. According to the police, a trial was
held in a open field to find out the cause of a mysterious disease that
claimed the lives of two plantation workers and affected many more during
the past fortnight. The garden workers used crude weapons and machetes
to chop off the heads of Munda and his family. After committing the crime,
some 200 garden workers carried the five torsos for five kms to the nearest
police station in Biswanath Chariali and handed it over. Police have arrested
six persons in connection with the case. According to police records,
some 200 people were killed by rural mobs in the past five years for allegedly
practising witchcraft in Assam. Superstitious beliefs, black magic and
demonology are integral to tribal custom in parts of Assam, Tripura and
other North East Indian States. Assam's Inspector General of Police Kula
Saikia described the incident as shocking, and added that h was baffled
that even in this day and age, people kill people on charges of witchcraft.
- Mar 20, 2006
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