A fake healer (kabiraj) in Kaliakair, Gazipur, staged an attempt to bring a young man killed by a snakebite back to life through incantations. He then fled with Tk 15,000, saying it was to fetch cowries (small shells that exorcists and healers use in their rituals). After lengthy preparations and a long wait, the burial was finally held at midnight.

The dead man, Saiful Islam, 40, was the son of Yunus Ali of Basura village in Kaliakair upazila, Gazipur. He was a mason by profession. His burial was completed in the early hours after Saturday (29 June).

Local people and relatives said Saiful went to a beel near his home at around 9.30pm on Friday with a fishing spear, to fish with neighbours. On the way a venomous snake bit him on the left foot. Another man with him killed the snake with the spear. Saiful then returned home with the dead snake and told his relatives and neighbours what had happened. His relatives took him to a healer.

After the healer's rituals he was taken that night to Kumudini Hospital in Mirzapur, Tangail, where he died under treatment on Saturday morning. Relatives brought the body home by ambulance. The funeral prayer was set for 2pm, and he had even been dressed in his shroud for burial.

At that point a healer arrived at the house. "This body has not died yet," he said. "The bodies of the dead turn stiff, but his has not. He is moving like a sleeping man. If cowries are brought and the rituals are done, he can be cured."

After this the burial was halted. On the healer's instructions, banana plants, milk, a buffalo horn and other items were arranged in an open field. As word of the treatment spread, hundreds of people from the surrounding area crowded to the house. The healer then told them he needed cowries, which might be found in Savar, and that it would cost at least Tk 15,000. He was given Tk 15,000 and sent to Savar. Afternoon turned to evening and evening to midnight, but the healer did not return.

A visit to Basura village on Saturday evening found extensive preparations. Four banana plants had been planted in a field beside the house, surrounded by several new silver-coloured pitchers. Four glasses of milk and a buffalo horn were placed at the four corners, and several electric lights were set up against the dark. Saiful's body lay on a table between the banana plants, with the dead snake beside it. People from several villages around the Basura Paschimpara Baitun Nur Jame Mosque area gathered to watch.

Abdul Jalil, imam of the local mosque, said the body was again dressed in a shroud and buried after the funeral prayer in the last hours of the night.

Zakir Hossain, a tiles worker and Saiful's colleague, said Saiful was brought to the village by ambulance after doctors at the hospital declared him dead. A healer looked at the body and said: "This is not a dead body. We will send out the cowries. By sending the cowries between 8pm and 12 midnight, he can be cured."

The healer, however, was not at the scene; local people said he had gone to Savar to fetch the items needed for the ritual.

Arman Hossain of Benupur in the upazila said: "The funeral prayer was supposed to take place. The healer supposedly can revive even a person bitten by a snake seven days earlier. That is how all this began."

A man named Anwar Hossain said: "Such superstition cannot be accepted in this modern age. The aware people of the area and the administration must take action against them."

The dead man's brother, Ali Hossain, said they had arranged banana plants, milk, new silver pitchers and much more. "Then the healer said cowries were needed for the treatment, and good cowries were supposedly found in Savar. He went to fetch them and never came back. Later, on the advice of the villagers and everyone else, the funeral prayer was held at night and he was buried."

Md Ichhamuddin, chairman of Dhaljora Union Parishad in Kaliakair upazila, gave a different sequence: the healer first said he had to go to Dhamrai for the cowries. After searching in Dhamrai he said they were not there and he would have to go to Savar. After searching in Savar he said they were not there either and he would have to go to Cumilla. After that there was no trace of him. As he did not return, the body was buried in the local graveyard after the funeral prayer at around 1.30am.

Kaliakair police station officer-in-charge (OC) AFM Nasim said: "A doctor from the upazila health complex went in the evening, but the relatives did not let him touch the body. The exorcist had apparently said the body could not be touched until his treatment was finished. But he left saying he would bring cowries and never came back."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.