Five women have been killed in eastern India by villagers who believed they were witches, according to local officials. Locals say the women’s curses caused poor crops, illness and misfortune.
“The women were dragged out of their home while asleep and beaten to death by the villagers suspecting them to be witches … some were even stoned to death,” said Jharkhand police spokesperson SN Pradhan. The attackers packed the victims’ bodies in sacks and discarded them outside the village boundary, according to witnesses.
. “What can you expect from the society when even educated youths join the angry mob?” said a local lawmaker, Gangotri Kujur, who visited the spot afterwards.
According to Indian government statistics around 2,000 people, almost all women, were killed after being branded witches between 2000 and 2012. Many attacks go unreported, campaigners say.
The Guardian reports that at least 90 people have been stabbed, burned or killed in other ways over the previous six years in the state.