An Indian mother and daughter were hacked to death by three men over allegations of witchcraft in the country’s remote tribal-dominated east, police said Saturday. The 50-year-old woman and her young daughter were beaten by their neighbours before being attacked with knives on Wednesday night in West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand state. They attacked the women in the night and killed them brutally,” district police chief Indrajit Mahatha told AFP. More than 2,000 people — many of them women — were killed in India on suspicion of witchcraft between 2000 and 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Some states, including Jharkhand, have introduced special laws to try to curb crimes against people accused of witchcraft and superstition.

Source: Punch June 29, 2019 12:11 UTC