Police have claimed to detained several suspects, including seven to eight warlocks, or male magic practitioners locally known as bhoopay, in the gruesome murder of Daya Bheel in Sindh’s Sanghar district on Thursday night.

“This case is being closely watched and the murderers of Daya will be arrested soon,” Sanghar SSP Bashir Ahmed Brohi told reporters after visiting the crime scene along with Shaheed Benazirabad DIG Mohammad Younus.

A five-member joint-investigation team led by Sinjhoro DSP Javed Ahmed Chandio has been formed. The DIG has tasked the JIT to submit the initial report in 24 hours.

Forty-four-year-old widow Daya Bheel was murdered and her mutilated body was found half a kilometer away from her house in a field in Deputy Sahab village, 18 kilometres from the district headquarters of Sanghar on Tuesday.

Her husband died a year ago. She had four daughters, out of which three have been married, and a son. The children’s account of the murder said that their mother had gone to pick up grass in the farm before her body was cut into pieces with a sharp weapon and the head was severed off.

“Her head was separated from the body and the savages had removed flesh of the whole head, wrote PPP Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli of Tharparkar.

It was suggested that local magicians were picked up by police on the suspicion that the murder was part of a ritual.

A first information report (FIR) has been registered against unidentified people under Section 302 (Punishment of qatl-i-amd) of the Pakistan Penal Code and sections 6 (terrorism) and 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act at the Sanjhoro Police Station.

PPP leader and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Minister for Minority Affairs Giyanchand Essrani took the notice of the incident on Thursday. Essrani was scheduled to visit the area on Friday.

The Sindh minister described the incident as an act of extreme brutality and vowed that persons involved in the “inhuman and barbaric crime” would be put behind the bars soon.

Essrani has sought a report of the incident from the Shaheed Benazirabad DIG and the Sanghar SSP. He has directed them to register a case of the tragic incident and apprehend the culprit at the earliest.

Farming and taking care of sheep are the main source of the Bhel community of Hindus in Sanghar. Kohli and Maguar are the other communities residing in Umerkot and Tharparkar areas.

Family of the victim has demanded that the real killers of Daya should be traced and revealed before eveyone. Civil society and local residents and human rights organisations have termed this incident as the “worst crime against humanity”.

Sources said that the police have taken DNA samples and started geo-fencing of the area. They have also made the family members part of the investigation.

Bhel’s relative say that they have no enmity with anyone.