Modern Mysteries

Woman in India is killed over 'witchcraft' fears

By T.K. Randall
July 5, 2022

Image: Various Artifacts of Traditional Witchcraft
Credit: Malcolm Lidbury (aka Pinkpasty) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) The execution of someone suspected of practicing witchcraft might seem like a form of barbarism relegated to the annals of history, however in some parts of the world, those accused of being practicing witches are still at risk of potentially lethal reprisal.

This fact was brought into sharp focus recently when a 70-year-old woman from Jharkhand's Garhwa district in India was beaten to death by villagers who believed that she was a witch.According to the woman's family, she was dragged from her home by a group of at least five people.

Police are now in the process of carrying out a postmortem on the victim's body.

"Murder on suspicion of witchcraft" is a notorious problem in the region which, according to statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), has seen over 590 suspected witches (most of which being women) murdered between 2001 and 2020.

Source: Mid-Day.com

Tags: Witchcraft