Atheist meet in Tamil Nadu to discuss human sacrifice

Every time an obituary is written to witchcraft, it returns with a vengeance. Rationalists from across the world are meeting at Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, on January 7, 8 and 9, 2011 to discuss why black magic continues to survive in the modern age.

The recent alleged sacrifice of three-year-old Priyanka near Mangalore looms large over the eighth World Atheist Conference.

“This is the first such incident that has come to the light in this region. We do not know how many of such macabre killings have gone unreported,” said the Federation of Indian Rationalists’ Associations president Narendra Nayak.

“Rationalists from Europe, the US and Africa have written to me about this shameful incident and a special paper on this incident will be presented at this conference.” he added.

Nayak said the initial response to the Mangalore sacrifice from the brotherhood of atheists as well as the member associations of the Federation was shock, disgust and anger.

“They pointed a finger at the political leaders in Karnataka, who have started performing all sorts nonsensical and demonic rituals in various temples and shrines everywhere in the country purportedly to save their chair. In their quest to gain the non-existent divine grace, they have wrecked the people’s trust in democracy and rule of law and unleashed forgotten evils like witchcraft, human sacrifice and cult worship,” he explained.

Dr Vijayam, co-convenor of the conference, told DNA from Hyderabad that “witchcraft is alive everywhere in the country and we have fought it on every platform. But never in the history of modern India has a human sacrifice been reported. We have come across mutilation of limbs and impairment of eyes as a sacrificial offering to negate the wrath of enemies but not human
sacrifice.”

In the meanwhile, Seemanth Kumar Singh, commissioner of police, Mangalore, has stated that “we have gathered all the information pertaining to child sacrifice at Yeyyadi in Mangalore and will send a report to the state human rights commission in a day or two. The post-mortem report also speaks of torture and misery meted out to the young child Priyanka.”