BAHAWALNAGAR: The Mandi Sadiq Ganj police let two faith healers off the hook hours after they were handed over to them after being thrashed for allegedly killing a man during ‘exorcism’ on Saturday night.

Reports said the family of Abdul Rasheed (a labourer) said to be an asthmatic, suspected that he was possessed. They sent for faith healers Jameel, a resident of Mandi Sadiq Ganj, and Abbas (Arifwala) at their house at Mohallah Nizampura. Eyewitnesses said the faith healers severely beat Rasheed and when he cried due to pain, they declared it an integral part of exorcism.

The suspects claimed that these were the cries of evil spirits and the patient would get permanent relief only after complete treatment. They continued to torture the man who eventually died after some time. Notwithstanding the denial of the perpetrators, the family called a dispenser who examined the body and declared that the man had already died.

Rasheed’s kin called 15 for emergency police service and handed over the suspects to a team. Police also gave a sound beating to the two persons before locking them up in the police station.

A source said the suspects were set at liberty around 2am after they struck a deal with police. He said some influential people of the area played a role to get an affidavit from the affected family claiming that Rasheed’s death was from natural causes and that they did not want to file a case against the suspects.

The source said that after getting a green signal from police, the relatives also buried the body without postmortem.

The deceased’s nephew, Akbar, told Dawn that his uncle Abdul Rasheed was the sole breadwinner of his family and had left a wife and three minor children to mourn. He said the family had borrowed Rs7,000 to pay the faith healers for his spiritual treatment. He said that after his death, the family was forced to reconcile with the suspects.

Mandi Sadiq Ganj SHO Amir Abbas said the deceased was an asthmatic and had no torture marks on his body. He said they arrested the suspects on the complaint of the family but later released them on the request of area notables. He said the man was laid to rest without a postmortem for which the family did not show willingness.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2021