Five women were paraded naked, beaten and forced to eat human excrement by villagers after being branded as witches in India's Jharkhand state. Local police said the victims were Muslim widows who had been labelled as witches by a local cleric. The incident occurred on Sunday in a remote village in Deoghar district.
Correspondents say the abuse of women who are branded as witches is common, but rare footage of the incident has caused outrage across India.
"On Sunday morning the victims were taken to a playground where hundreds had assembled to watch the ghastly incident," deputy inspector general of police Murari Lal Meena told the BBC. "No one in the mob came forward to rescue the victims as they were being stripped and beaten up," he said.
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