A TRAGIC and brutal sorcery-related murder took place in full view of hundreds of onlookers in a Mount Hagen City suburb in Western Highlands Province yesterday morning.
The relatives of a six-year-old boy doused petrol on a woman whom they had suspected of killing the boy with sorcery and burnt her alive.
The torture and brutal murder of a mother of two provided a photo opportunity for many of the onlookers, including school children, who crowded around and took photos of the woman being consumed alive by the fire.
The perpetrators tied the woman up with rope, drenched her with petrol, placed her on top of a heap of rubbish then placed used tyres over her before setting her alight.
City firemen rushed in their fire tender to the scene around 7am to put the fire but the angry perpetrators and their supporters chased them away. Several policemen present at the scene were helpless to do anything to save the women because they were outnumbered by the perpetrators and their supporters.
The victim, who was from Enga Province, was suspected of killing the six-year-old boy through sorcery after he died at the Mount Hagen general hospital on Tuesday.
