Two women have been made to go through a most tortuous and excruciating agony after being accused of being witches.
File photo: A water well
Two Indian women have been brutally killed by villagers after being accused of committing very heinous crimes.
The women from Assam, India, were killed after being accused by three of their own male relatives, of filling a village well with insects, and branded them as witches.
They then buried them alive by pushing them into the water facility and covering it up with mud and earth.
Acording to The New Indian Express, the incident was reported from Naharbari in central Assam’s Nagaon district. The victims were identified as Salmi Gaur, 47, and Sagu Gaur, 59. While Salmi was a cousin of the accused persons, Sagu was their maternal aunt.
The police have arrested two of the accused Basu Gaur and Sanu Gaur. The third, Kumar Sanu Gaur, has absconded.
“We drink water from a village well. But by practising black magic, they (Sagu and Salmi) filled it up with insects. As a result, we always used to fall sick. So, we caught them last (Monday) night and buried them alive by pushing them into the well and filling it up with mud and earth,” reporters were told
Witch-hunting, a social malaise, is common in Assam, especially in the Bodo and Adivasi-majority areas.
Usually, a ‘bej’ (quack) identifies the witch, who will then be beaten up, tortured, ex-communicated and even killed. For every disease, death and even poor harvest in a village, the locals blame it on the witches.