Indian villagers kill 5 women for 'witchcraft'

Singh added that 24 villagers have been arrested over the killings of the women, who were mostly aged between 45 & 50

NEW DELHI: Villagers in a rural part of eastern India have killed five women whom they accused of practising witchcraft, police said on Saturday.

Police in eastern Jharkhand state said a group of assailants dragged the women out of their huts and beat them to death around midnight on Friday in Kanjia village, some 40 kilometres from state capital Ranchi.

"A group (of villagers) dragged the women out and beat them to death with sticks, accusing them of practising witchcraft," Ranchi deputy police chief Arun Kumar Singh told AFP by phone.

Singh added that 24 villagers have been arrested over the killings of the women, who were mostly aged between 45 and 50.

Jharkhand police spokesman SN Pradhan said the villagers also used stones and knives after blaming the five women for bringing illness, poor crops and bad luck on the village through witchcraft.

"The whole village is ganging up against the police now saying they all killed the women," he said. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2015.