Sorcerer sacrifices boy for occult powers {India}

Indo-Asian News Service - Yahoo ^ | July 21, 2002

[syriacus]

Kolkata, July 21 (IANS) Police have arrested a man for beheading a 13-year-old boy and offering his blood to an occult deity in a West Bengal village.

The gruesome incident took place on Friday at Dararkandi village in the central district of Murshidabad, some 200 km from here, police said Sunday.

According to district police official Gautam Banerjee, the culprit, identified as Pintu, had been arrested. "He has confessed to killing Rezaul Karim."

Pintu said he practiced black magic and wanted to acquire mystical powers. He had been advised by a sorcerer to sacrifice a young boy for the purpose. He said he had been on the look out for a potential victim for a long time.

The victim turned out to be Karim, whose family worked on Pintu's farmstead as contract labours, Banerjee said.

On Friday, Pintu lured Karim to a desolate part of the village and killed him with a cleaver. He made the offering to the occult deity and quietly returned home.

"When Karim did not return home till late in the evening, a search was launched. As the boy had last been seen with Pintu, the latter was questioned. Then the culprit panicked and broke down. Later, he took the police to the spot where he had hidden Karim's body," Banerjee said.

Police said they were looking for Pintu's accomplice.

Human sacrifice is not unknown in West Bengal or neighbouring Orissa where illiterate and backward communities appease occult deities with human lives to escape

[syriacus]

The article ends with the word "escape." I do not know what is being escaped from.

[jimtorr]

I guess the movie "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", set in India, wasn't so absurd after all.

[El Sordo]

I blame Harry Potter.

[WFTR]

Here's one more reason to stop multiculturalism in its tracks. We don't need these kinds of beliefs in America.

WFTR
Bill

[neutrino]

and killed him with a cleaver

Well, here's the problem. He should have used an Athame, like the one pictured below.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic, in the unlikely event that any humor impaired persons are present.

[AM2000]

.. to escape the wrath of the Gods, most likely. I'm not unfamiliar with these belief systems; what strikes me as odd in this instance is that the victim was Muslim. I sense that this is being disguised as a ritualistic sacrifice.

[tracer]

So, what's your point?? 8~)

[another cricket]

You forgot to add that the Athame should be made by your own hands if it is to have any power. < /sarcasm >

Human sacrifice..... What is wrong with people?

a.cricket

[Britton J Wingfield]

You beat me to it, verbatim.

[LanaTurnerOverdrive]

Yes, I'm being sarcastic, in the unlikely event that any humor impaired persons are present.

So those of us who fail to find humor in the murder of children are impaired?

I understand that AIDS infected men in S. Africa rape infants believing it will heal them.

Why don't you add THAT to your wacky little routine?

[neutrino]

Why don't you add THAT to your wacky little routine?

Well, it could be because that's even more disgusting than the primitive idiocy exhibited by the wannabe wizard. Or it could be because I'm thinking of producing a book of Neutrino's Favorite Sayings, and I don't wish to give away my best material. But the question is...which is it? And for the answer, the lips of wisdom are sealed, save to those with the ears of understanding.

[boris]

I generally satisfy myself by turning them into gigantic yams.

--Boris