Two people burnt alive in medieval style in India on suspicion of being ‘witches’

A brutal incident has taken place in the Indian state of Jharkhand where a woman and her 10-month-old baby were burnt alive on suspicion of being ‘witches’. The incident took place on Tuesday (February 17) night in the state’s Kudsai village. Police have so far arrested four people in connection with the murder and are searching for others involved in the incident.
The deceased woman has been identified as Jyoti Sinku. Jyoti’s husband Kolhan Sinku was also seriously burned in the attack and is currently undergoing treatment in the hospital. According to police and local sources, rumors spread in the village about the sudden death of several cattle and the illness and death of a local man named Pushtun Birua. Superstitious villagers suspected Jyoti Sinku of being a ‘witch’ and blamed her for all these unpleasant incidents.
After Pushtun Birua’s death, a mob attacked Jyoti’s house on Tuesday evening. Kolhan Sinku said about a dozen people broke into his house and set his wife and child on fire. He appealed to the village panchayat to resolve the matter, but the attackers did not listen. Based on Kolhan’s statement, the district police have registered a case of murder and criminal conspiracy.
According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, more than 2,500 people, mostly women, were killed in the country between 2000 and 2016 on charges of witchcraft alone. In regions like Jharkhand and Bihar, which lack modern healthcare and education, such tragic incidents still occur frequently due to people’s reliance on witches, kavirajs and superstitions. Following the incident, the police said they would take up awareness programmes against superstition in rural areas.

Source: BBC