Witchcraft allegation against family in WJH
JOWAI: A young man identified as Plan Biam, 20, was brutally murdered while his wife – Sandalin Ymbon – critically injured after a mob assaulted them in the remote Saphai village of West Jaintia Hills on Saturday evening.
The family was accused of being ‘Menshohnoh’ or worshippers of ‘U Thlen’, the serpent.
According to West Jaintia Hills police, the incident took place at around 8:30 PM at a forest near the village. Some villagers spotted the couple late in the evening inside the forest and alerted the villagers that they were ‘Menshohnoh’.
Soon a mob, numbering more than a hundred, rushed to the forest and nabbed Biam and attacked him with sharps weapons.
“They hit him on the head, neck, chest, hands and legs and even cut off his private parts. His head was brutally smashed,” a police officer informed this scribe.
His wife, who was grievously injured, was brought to Jowai Civil Hospital and later rushed to NEIGRIHMS in a critical state.
Sources, meanwhile, informed that Biam had been apprehended by the villagers two years ago after he was found to be frequenting a cave on the outskirt of the village.