Woman tortured by fake faith healer dies in hospital

She was suffering from high fever, pir said she was possessed by a jinn

SUKKUR: A woman in her early 20s succumbed to injuries at Civil Hospital, Karachi, on Tuesday after having been allegedly tortured by a fake faith healer (pir) in Khairpur district.



Ghinwa, wife of Abdul Razzaq Rajpar and a resident of Amin Pato village, was suffering from high fever. However, the pir declared that she had been possessed by a jinn and tortured her, due to which, she went into coma and finally lost her life.

According to the husband, he took Ghinwa to pir Abdul Karim Khoso in Bhingo Behan after local doctors failed to diagnose her disease. The faith healer immediately declared that she has been possessed by a jinn and he will treat her in his own way, said Abdul Razzaq. He claimed that Abdul Karim locked Ghinwa in a room and burned her with a hot iron rod. Later, he added, the pir put ice and water in a bathtub and made the woman sleep in the tub for hours.



When her condition deteriorated after this 'treatment', Abdul Razzaq left her at her parent's house. He said her parents first shifted her to Shaheed Benazirabad Hospital, then to a facility in Hyderabad and finally to Civil Hospital, Karachi, where she breathed her last on Tuesday. The body was then taken to her native village, where her parents and other area people staged a demonstration and sit-in at Bhingo Behan-Pucca Chang Road.

The deceased woman's father, Wali Dad Rajpar, said that he had registered an FIR against the fake faith healer at Faiz Ganj police station but the police, instead of charging him with the murder, have charged him with  fraud.

The assistant head constable of Faiz Ganj police station, Zameer Rind, said that they had arrested the accused but he obtained bail from the court. He said that after carrying out the post-mortem of the deceased woman, they have written to the court to allow them to include section 302 in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.