Cheat "spiritual healer" arrested in Bangladesh after media report

Bangladesh Police on Monday arrested a cheat "spiritual healer" in a rural village in the country's central Munshiganj district, some 27 km away of capital Dhaka, following a local media report with images delineating his horrendous treatment methods.

Local Sirajdikhan Police station chief in Munshigonj, Motiur Rahman, told Xinhua on Monday over phone, "We've arrested the so called pir (spiritual healer) Amzad Fakir and his assistants following a media report today."

Bangladesh's leading Bengali Daily Prothom Alo on Monday published the report with some images which show the cheat pir or spiritual healer is swirling two infant twins aged two and a half months and clubbing a mentally deranged woman.

According to the local media report, the cheat spiritual healer wallop the patients, who are sent to him by family members with the belief that he has a spiritual treatment power, saying that this is a method for driving away evil spirits.

All the arrestees have been taken to the Police station for interrogation, Rahman said adding "We'll take legal action against the man and his assistants who tortured many children and women in the name of spiritual treatment."

During the primary interrogation, he said the man (spiritual healer) admitted that he physically tortured a large number of people particularly women and children in the name of treatment to pocket money.

Superstition still works as a dominating factor in Muslim main rural Bangladesh where a majority of illiterate people live below poverty line. A majority of the people in the South Asian country, who usually go for treatment to such healers, can hardly afford treatment at any hospital.

Source: Xinhua