4 children in Karnataka buried neck-deep in mud to cure disabilities
Four children were buried neck-deep in the mud in a village in Kalaburagi district on Thursday as part of a superstitious belief to cure their disabilities on the day of the eclipse. As most parts of the country witnessed the annular solar eclipse, the children were buried alive upto the neck in the mud that allegedly contained some dung waste, by their parents in Taj Sultanpur village to cure their ailments.
As soon as police and district administration officials learnt about the incident, they rushed to the spot, officials said. Officials and a few locals pulled out the children, they said adding investigation is on.
"We have followed what our elders have told us, as medical treatment has not helped, we decided to try this...we don't know whether it will cure our child or not, but wanted to give it a try as medical treatmentdid not help," father of a girl said.
Mother of another child said, "we have spent enough money to hospitals, now we want to try this as there is a belief that doing so during eclipse will work out, so wanted to try this."
There are reports of similar incidents at couple of other places in the district, also at Indi in Vijayapura district. Similar practice has been reported from the region in the past too whenever there had been solar eclipse, officials said, adding that but their number have come down.
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