Inarwati Malakar, 56, Urmila Devi Malakar, 42, of Morang, and Bhanu Devi Mahato, 46, of Sunsari, have been displaced following villagers´ tortures. Inarwati was also working as a health volunteer. “I served villagers for over 20 years,” she said at Women Rehabilitation Center (WOREC). “But the same villagers thrashed me on a false charge of witchcraft,” she lamented. [break]
According to Inarwati, the villagers started torturing her since the Holi festival. “Prema Devi Mandal, one of my neighbor, once came to my house pretending to be unwell,” she recalled. “She said that she could be healed if I touched her. I complied with her request in a good faith. But she feigned to have been miraculously healed. And all the villagers started pounding me declaring me a witch. They also thrashed Urmila."
According to Urmila, the villagers even tried to force her to eat human feces. “Even police did not help us,” she said.
The victims said local shaman Lakhan Paswan of Aamgachhi VDC had declared them ´witches´, inciting the locals to thrash them. Even former VDC chairman Asheshwar Mandal was involved in thrashing the women and threatening them not to return to the village.
The victims have lodged a complaint against Binod Mandal, Arun Mandal, Nagendra Mandal, Sukum Lal Mandal, Pawan Lal Mandal, Kashi Mandal and Lakhan Paswan at the District Police Office, Morang. But police have nabbed only Lakhan Paswan, the self-declared shaman. Others are still at large.
Bhanu Devi of Amduwa VDC in Sunsari was also mercilessly beaten by a bunch of villagers led by former VDC chairman Dinesh Roy. She has filed a complaint against Roy and his henchmen. “Bhanu Devi is fearful about her life,” says Manjeeta Kattel of WOREC Nepal.
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