OKARA: A woman was allegedly tortured to death by two ‘faith healers’ on Thursday night in Qadir Colony.

According to police, Riaz suspected his wife Shahnaz Bibi was possessed, and being superstitious he decided to get her ‘treated’ by faith healers.

On Thursday night, he invited ‘spiritual healers’ Mubasher Shah and Abdul Jabbar Shah from his native Mupalky village to his house in Qadir Colony. To exorcise Shahnaz, Mubasher and Jabbar allegedly tortured her to the extent that she died.

On Friday morning, locals informed police about the incident when they learnt about it and that the family was about to bury her quietly. A Division police rushed to the house and took the body into custody and shifted it to DHQ Hospital for autopsy. However, Shahnaz’s family refused to get her postmortem conducted.

Her family presented a written statement to police stating that Shahnaz died a natural death and no torture was inflicted on her. The family did not want to initiate legal proceedings against anyone, it added.

The family also refused to move the body to hospital for a postmortem. They took it to her native village for burial.

PROTEST: Renala Khurd Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) staff for the second consecutive second day observed a pen-down strike over not receiving their salaries for two months.

The employees locked their offices and sat outside the building in protest. They protested that the TMA had not paid their salaries for two months and that it had become very difficult for them and their families to survive. They warned they would continue their strike untill their salaries were paid.

More than 150 employees of Renala Khurd TMA were allegedly deprived of salaries for two months because the tehsil municipal officer and audit officer had been transferred about four weeks ago. Since then no officer had been deputed on these posts.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2016