Murder suspects made to walk on embers in Pakistani village
A village council in Pakistan ordered four men suspected in the killing of a woman to walk on fire in a centuries-old ritual to prove their guilt or innocence, police said today.
The four, accused of killing Saeda Mai for her jewellery, were made to step across eight feet of burning embers, said Zahoor Qureshi, police chief in Rasoolpur village, where the ritual was performed.
The men’s feet were then wrapped in cloth and examined three hours later. One of the four, identified as Saifullah, had suffered burns. The village council declared him to be Mai’s killer and planned to hand him over to the police.
The three others were absolved of any guilt in the crime and allowed to go free.
Saifullah, who uses only one name, claimed he was innocent and after the council’s verdict he fled Rasoolpur village, about 185 miles west of Multan in the eastern province of Punjab. He was still at large at time of writing.
Qureshi rejected the council’s verdict as illegal. “These are old traditions and have no value in the law,” he said.
The four accused, who were on bail pending police investigation of the murder, would all be arrested and tried in a court, he said.
No action was planned against the members of the village council for holding the ritual, which was watched by about 100 villagers.
Such rites are used to judge crimes in some conservative rural parts of Pakistan, particularly in south-western Punjab province and in the southern province of Sindh, where the official legal system often proves ineffective.
