India police seek arrest ph of village quack for fatal witch hunt

NEW DELHI:   Police in eastern India were searching
Sunday for a woman described as a "village quack"
and suspected of inciting the mob killing of five other
women accused of witchcraft.

Police said the woman is thought to have strirred
up an angry mob which lynched the five after
blaming them for recent deaths in Kanja village.
in Jharkhand state ,some 30kilometres (20 miles )
from the state capital Ranchi'

"She is some village quack and now absconding..
She told the villages that these five  using black
magic and causing deaths of children,Ranchi deputy
police chief Arun Sigh told AFP by phone,

She abetted the whole thing ,We are searching
for her and will arrest her on the charge of murder.
Kumar added that three more in the village
had been arrested late Saturday over the killing
bringing the total number detained to 27.

The five women dragged out of huts by their hair
and beaten to death with sticks,knives and stones
at around midnight,Friday ,after being accused
of bringing illness and bad luck on the village
through witchcraft,

Police said the quack had been brain washing
the villages about the women "casting evils
spells" They said the final attack was triggered
by the death of sick 17 year-old boy last week.
AFP