Nagaland: Accused of performing black magic man beaten to death in Noklak

Grossly influenced by superstitious beliefs, a group of men in Nagaland severly assaulted a man, ultimately leading to his death. One other person was also brutally assaulted. The incident has been reported from Nagaland’s Noklak district, where the victim was charged with performing black magic and was subsequently assaulted by a group of persons.

Inputs citing Noklak Police, suggested that a construction worker namely Rashal had an argument with his head mason namely Magmul Laskar, and a construction worker, Hasnul Haque.

On May 27, Rashal is said to have informed Bumo Khiam who is an influential local businessman that Magmul and Hasnul had performed ‘black magic’ upon him. Having said this, Rashal left Noklak for his village.

On May 28, Bumo called both the said head mason and the construction worker separately in a secluded area near a jungle hut and enquired why they had performed black magic upon the worker. However, both of them repeatedly denied the charges and said that they do not possess any black magic tricks. However, this failed to convince businessman Bumo Khiam.

Following this, Bumo along with four of his accomplices took the construction worker, Hasnul Haque, to a field about 10 kms from Noklak and severely assaulted him with blunt objects, who was later, admitted to Noklak District Hospital. The following day at around 9:00 pm, Hasnul succumbed to his injuries.

On receiving the report, the Police conducted a raid on the houses of the suspects and arrested 3(three) of the accused but the main accused escaped. However, the next day he and his another accomplice were arrested by the police.

In connection with the murder case, five accused namely Bumo Khiam (48), Shing (20), Khomong (42) , Bilal Ahmed (27) and Longoi (25) were arrested.