Child burned to death by faith healer for 'possessing evil spirits'

KOT ADDU: A 15-year-old child lost his life at the hands of a fake spiritual healer in Kot Addu area of the Punjab province during an exorcism rite, ARY NEWS reported on Monday.

According to the details, Mukhtiar, a resident of Kot Addu area, took his child to a faith healer, identified as Abdul Ghaffar, to drive out evil spirits.

The fake pir took the child to a separate room for performing exorcism rite and later handed over the unconscious and badly wounded child to the family.

It later emerged that the accused dipped the victim’s face in a boiling oil pan to drive out evil spirits and handed him over to the family after he fell unconscious. The child succumbed to the burn wounds within hours of the incident.

The accused threatened the family to refrain from communicating the crime to the law enforcement authorities and said that he would send evil spirits to their home over non-compliance.

However, the family approached the police after the child’s death and got a case registered against the accused under section 302 of the penal laws on the complaint of the victim’s father.

The police said that the accused faith healer ran away after the incident and claimed that they have carried out unsuccessful raids to arrest him.