Fake exorcism: Woman ends life after rape, torture by ‘faith healer’ in Muzaffargarh

The victim’s mother-in-law claimed she was under influence of evil spirits.

MULTAN: In yet another astonishing incident of fake exorcism, a newly-married woman committed suicide after being raped and tortured by a ‘spiritual healer’ in Shah Jamal, Muzaffargarh on Thursday.

A police official told The Express Tribune that NB*, 20, resident of Goram Bagraoun, married Akram one month ago. He added her mother-in-law Mumtaz Mai claimed that NB was under the influence of evil spirits and took her to a fake faith healer for exorcism.

He said, “The self-proclaimed faith healer Qari Iqbal told Mumtaz Mai that her daughter-in-law was possessed and needed a ‘healing treatment’ to drive them out or she would not be able to have a child.”

“As part of the treatment, the fake faith healer sexually assaulted and tortured the young woman with hot knives and rods causing serious injuries on her hands, feet and other parts of the body,” the official pointed out.



However, when NB came home, she committed suicide by consuming poison as she was depressed due to the sexual assault, he said. Her body was shifted to Shah Jamal District Hospital for legal formalities.

Mai told police that she regularly went to the accused faith healer for spiritual advice and that is why she took Nusrat to him as well. Meanwhile, the police raided the place of the fake faith healer Qari Iqbal to arrest him but he fled away. However, investigation of the matter was underway.

The police confirmed the victim was raped before being tortured. However, they were waiting for the autopsy report for further process.

This is not the first incident of its type. Hundreds of such cases have been reported in the past but the authorities seemed reluctant to take action against quacks and fake spiritual healers who are playing with the lives of people.

Earlier in February 2017, 34-year-old woman was tortured to death by fake spiritual healer Amanullah, and his companion Abdul Hameed in Dera Ghazi Khan. The accused closed the woman in a room and subjected her to inhuman torture. They burnt her hands and feet with fire that resulted in her death.



However, the police arrested both the accused and registered a case against them.

Similarly, police arrested a woman, claiming to be a faith healer, and her husband for selling a four-month-old child in Muzaffargarh in April this year. The doctor and his wife who bought the child were also arrested.

The police said the couple had taken their son to a female faith healer identified as Mussarat Bibi where she kept the child inside a room for two hours. After that she told the parents the child had died and later sold the infant to a doctor Muhammad Ali and his wife for Rs75,000.

She asked the parents of the child to bring a cow so that she could do something to bring the child ‘back to life’. But the parents had suspicion over Mussarat Bibi’s behaviour and informed the police about the matter. The police acted on the complaint and arrested the accused woman, Muhammad Ali, his wife and others.

There are several people in our society who believe faith healers can save them from possession, evil spirits and diseases, without any evidence. The cure is always a few ritualistic prayers and religious text incantations, a practice more commonly known as faith healing.

Considered an alternative to medical treatment, faith healing is practised by large groups of followers of many religions – Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism – all with their own variations.

Over time, the practice has become a profitable business, with hundreds of aalims and pirs exploiting unsuspecting people for money, claiming they have the solutions to everything from a broken relationship to financial woes to black magic. In the name of faith healing, some of these ‘healers’ have been known to torture, rape, or even murder their ‘patients’.

* names have been changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2017.