[MichaelMyers]

‘Black witch priest’ in India dismembers 4-year-old in sacrifice to find teen’s missing cellphone

On Oct. 24, a 4-year-old girl went missing from her home in the Charaideo district of upper Assam, a mostly tribal state in northeast India.

Last Monday, the child’s body was found in a forest about 75 to 90 yards from the Ratanpur tea estate where she lived with her parents. She had been decapitated and her arms had been severed.

Both her arms and her head were found scattered near the body on the forest floor.

The horrific dismembering was allegedly the result of a 14-year-old girl, who lived in the same village, losing her mobile phone.

Wanting it back, her parents — Hanuman Bhumij and his wife, Many Bhumij — turned to black magic, police said.

As Prasanta Phukan, an inspector in charge of the Sonari Police Station in Assam, told The Washington Post, many in the remote tribal area are uneducated and steeped in superstition.

They conducted a prayer ritual that Phukan said was performed by Gul Mhammad Ali, also known as Gulam, a tantric, or black witch priest, in the village.

With Gulam were his nephew Hajrat Ali and another assistant, Ariful Haqmulla.

Part of the prayer ritual to retrieve the mobile phone included sacrificing the 4-year-old girl. On Oct. 24, they allegedly kidnapped her and proceeded to horribly disfigure her, eventually killing her.

Police have arrested Hanuman and Many, along with the two assistants in the ritual. Gulam, though, has fled.

The 14-year-old who originally lost her phone was not arrested, since she is a minor. The family of the victim and the family that took part in the prayer ritual knew each other from living together in the same small village.

Everyone involved, including the deceased child, are Adivasis, descendants of indigenous people in India who have been the objects of discrimination and exploitation in India for years.

These communities tend to be poor and uneducated, generally working as laborers. Many of them tend to be deeply superstitious, and their belief systems can involve goddesses and witches.

Crimes, particularly forms of ritual human sacrifice, stemming from these occult beliefs are not unheard of in more rural parts of India

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ing-cellphone/