Woman, branded witch, stabbed to death

Guwahati (Assam), August 20, 2018:

Witch-hunting has returned to haunt people.

A woman in Upper Assam’s Charaideo district has been stabbed to death by unidentified people who branded her a witch. The incident was reported from Borhat.

According to reports, some locals suspected the victim, Pawanmati Kouri, to be a witch. The woman was found lying in a poll of blood, dead, on Sunday night.

The police said the victim was attacked with a sharp weapon. “We are probing the case,” a senior police official said.

Witch-hunting, a social malaise, claims several lives in Assam’s tea belt and tribal areas every year. The killings have not stopped despite mass awareness campaigns by the state government and various NGOs.

Last month, President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015. The Act views witch-hunting as a cognizable, non-bailable and non-compoundable offence. It was passed by Assam Assembly in 2015 with provisions of jail term up to life imprisonment.