A man claiming to be ‘pir’ (spiritual healer) in Punjab’s Burewala has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman who came to him for “spiritual treatment”.

“I was sexually assaulted at gunpoint by the pir,” said the woman in the first information report (FIR) against the fake pir.

The FIR has been registered at Fatehpur police station in Burewala with investigation underway.

Incidents related to fake pirs, subjecting people who approach them for “spiritual treatment” to rape and brutal torture tactics, are reported frequently.

Last year, a fake pir sexually assaulted a woman in Punjab’s Tibba Sultanpur, while claiming that he was perofmring an exorcism.

The woman had come to town to visit her relatives when the ‘fake pir’ visited the residence and asked the family to go out of the room so he could free the woman of the jinn. He later subjected the woman to sexual assault.

In another such incident, a fake peer set a woman on fire on the pretext of exorcising jinns. As a result, most of her body was left with burn wounds.