Additional reporting by Ahmed Nazeer
A police team have been searching for black magic practitioners on Thakandhoo Island in Haa Alif Atoll after some islanders “purposefully” contacted the Maldives Police Service (MPS) and claimed Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters were responsible for the possession of four local children by evil spirits, according to an island council source.
The police arrived on the island around 10:00am yesterday morning and started inspecting houses. Their search is based on information police intelligence received, Thakandhoo Island Council Vice President Ibrahim Shaheed told local media.
The police team is inspecting individual houses under a court warrant, a police media official told Sun Online.
Four children from the same family began behaving strangely earlier this week, prompting islanders to call in ‘fanditha’ (magic) men who practice ‘ruqyah’ (Islamic exorcism) from the nearby island of Ihavandhoo, a Thakandhoo island council source told Minivan News today (September 12).
The MPS was called to investigate the black magic case after some of the islanders perceived the incident to be politically motivated, the island council source explained.
“Some of the islanders purposefully sent police officers to homes of MDP supporters on the island,” said the island council source. “The police came and gave them each documents that said their houses had to be searched regarding reports police intelligence received.”
“The documents also noted that police officers were unable to find anything related to the matter after searching their houses,’’ he added.
The Thakandhoo Island Council “wishes to get rid of this black magic issue forever and has asked the fanditha men to determine exactly who is responsible [for contacting the police],” the source noted.
Because the four children living in the same house on the island were believed to be possessed by evil spirits the islanders brought fanditha men to the island on Tuesday (September 10), and they immediately started reciting ‘maithiri’ (Quranic verses recited to end spiritual possession).
“When the recitation of maithiri started three days ago the kids situation got worse,’’ the island council source said. “But we were told by the fanditha men that it will be like that until the seventh day.”
The fanditha men also determined the general location of the buried black magic items and asked people to dig in the area.
They discovered the black magic objects buried in front of a gate located inside the Thakandhoo Island School, which leads to the playground outside school grounds.
‘’When we dug up the area we found these objects and now we have thrown them away,’’ said the island council source.
The black magic objects were reported to be clay tablets by local media.
Last night the island council met with the community to talk about this issue as people were feeling “scared and uncomfortable”, he added.
Police Spokesperson Chief Inspector Hassan Haneef was not responding to calls at time of press, however a police media official told Minivan News that the MPS was not revealing any information about the case as the investigation was ongoing.
Possessed children
“The police arrived yesterday and have been checking houses for black magic books, writing, or a witch – anything suspicious,” a Thakandhoo island resident told Minivan News.
“They checked three or four homes and are still here today, but are supposed to be leaving in the evening,” she added. “So far no one has been arrested, but they have taken some books into their possession.”
A 14 year-old girl, and boys aged 12,10, and nine – none of whom have had any previous behavioral problems – have been behaving very erratically and are difficult to control, the source explained.
“I’m not a believer [in black magic], I never have been, but it’s happening. And it’s so weird to see happening,” she said.
“It just started suddenly. The children began speaking and behaving in a very strange way. Their outbursts happen randomly – any time of day for the girl, but with the boys it happens mostly in the evenings,” she continued.
“The girl has been seeing black shadows, acting weird, complaining of ‘frozen’ hands and teeth, and saying strange things, ‘I’m going to kill you and somebody’s coming,’ and has fainted,” she explained. “She was admitted to the island’s health centre screaming uncontrollably not to remove the [clay] stones because it would kill her, and not to kill her.”
“[Additionally,] the 10 year-old boy has been continuously running super fast all over the island trying to get into the school and he also fainted,” she continued.
During the community meeting last night islanders had an opportunity to voice their concerns and were also instructed about how to be safe and what precautions to take against black magic, the island source noted.
“Everybody’s worried about the children and they’re concerned because there hasn’t been a black magic incident here for a long time, not since my grandmother was a child,” she said.
“We were advised to recite the Quran and for children not to go out after 6:00pm or go to isolated places unsupervised,” she added.
According to the source the island school has remained open, but some parents have not been sending their children to class for the past two days.
This prompted the school principal to tell parents attending the community meeting that “they should be sending their children to school because if we [islanders] don’t go out [of our homes] it will be more of a risk,” said the island source.
“People are not openly saying much about it because that will put them in danger as well,” she added.
In addition to reciting verses from the Quran, blessed water can also be used to conduct an exorcism, Spiritual Healers of the Maldives President and Exorcist, Ajnaadh Ali, explained Minivan News today.
He noted that the minimum period of treatment for those afflicted by black magic is seven days, but it can take up to one or two months depending on the case.
Thakandhoo islanders contacted the Spiritual Healers of the Maldives to assist with healing the possessed children, however because they are currently “taking treatment themselves”, the organisation has decided to conduct workshops on the island at a later date, added Ali.
Politics and black magic
This is the third island in two weeks to have reported black magic incidents related to political party rivalries.
Police were summoned to investigate an alleged black magic doll after it was discovered at the Shaviyani Atoll School polling station on Kanditheemu Island during the presidential election vote counting.
Coconuts with black magic spells were allegedly being used to sway voters’ political party allegiance and incite confrontations between MDP supporters and police on Fuvahmulah, ahead of the Presidential Election’s first round held September 7.
Additionally, police summoned a white magic practitioner to evaluate a young coconut believed to have been cursed by a black magic spell, after it was found near the Guraidhoo Island presidential election polling station.
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Maldivian people--it is now 2013.Magic acts ,black or white are solely for TV entertainment programs..
Dhivehistanis are still stuck in the Dark Ages. It's sad to see children being subjected to this abuse for political and financial gain - but that's the price you pay for believing in nonsense like genies and flying donkeys. So the election season has turning out to be a windfall for the local snakeoil salesmen. I wonder which side the genies are taking? Are they registered at the EC? Were they the extra 10 or 20 thousand that Gasim is talking about? Are the majority of Maldivian genies supporting MDP?
Most importantly, how is juvenile mass hysteria going to affect the vote? Will the people of Thakandhoo vote for a party that makes their children faint? No, they'll vote the other option. Hence, PPM is responsible for this. QED. When you can't reason with them, you have to use their tactics...
I'm beginning to wonder if some people deserve to be included in the democratic process when they clearly don't have the necessary rationality, maturity or sanity to be considered grown up enough! LOL
Before everyone become judgmental, rubbishing Maldivains, read todays BBC's top news -Man had sex with a Goat in Wilshire England.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-24066227
Ofcourse crazy people are everywhere
Need to check their urine samples many cases of hallucinogenic drugs like phencyclidine are positive nowadays here what we see.in opd ...symptoms causing acute psychoses....available as tabkets or liquids which can be mixed with any drink or food routinely pts are positive nowadays
Ofcourse beastiality is different kind of issue Maldivins have been discovers raping a goat in a group sex triage.
This is on another scale, seems like these kids have been abused pretty badly. And the fanditha men knew wwhere the tablets were brilliant.
Excellent analysis and logic by the the highly esteemed police institution of ours.
@Glass house on Thu, 12th Sep 2013 10:03 PM
Bad example.
Would have been an appropriate example if Scotland Yard officers later interrogated the goat in order to ascertain the reason why it seduced the man.
But you're right crazy people are everywhere.
Dear Citizrns,
Please elect me as your next president. I will pay off these evil spirits. A laptop for each jinni
“[Additionally,] the 10 year-old boy has been continuously running super fast all over the island trying to get into the school and he also fainted,”
Could be a future Olympian; perhaps the first to bring an athletics medal to the Maldives. Find him quickly before his potential is scuppered by this black magic mumbo jumbo.
The police have to investigate this when the case has been raised to them.
The root cause lies in the religion, where God has said the shooting stars are executing Jinnis which ties to escape; the Jinnis have always tries to root out sanity of civilisation; that only he can, by way of Quran, stomp Jinnis.
The issues lie on a different base than just what's seen on one island.
Wow, Leah is on a roll. These stories are still hilarious! By the way, the islanders should realize that the magic items were buried there by the fanditha men themselves.
Sex with a goat is not the same thing. And there's no doubt that's going on here too.
These local island folk are the same as the kooks who see Jesus in their corn flakes. There are way too many similarities here to the bible beating hillbillies in the U.S. Inbreeding, isolation and crap education produce brainwashed, superstitious idiots.
Amazing imagination there! In all my years in so-called "primitive" Africa I never came across anything like this...
they must have magic mushrooms on that island, if so i want some
Holy f..ck!2013/ wake up people!
You expect to read stupid stories like this in The Democratic Republic of Congo and not in a south asian country.....especially in an intolerant 100% muslim country where the beliefs and practices of the 'kuffar' are not tolerated. You can ram islam down the throats of the islanders but you cannot make them give up their primitive hocus pocus practices it seems.
Far from being sophisticated and modern Maldivians are really unsophisticated and backward. I wonder which century your atoll dwellers are living in?
If your island children are behaving strangely, for God's sake stop reciting the koran over them and sprinkling zam zam water over them.....these strange practices could make anyone go mental.....look what it did to Kuribee.....I bet he's racing around some uninhabited atoll (I wish) muttering to himself in poor english.
To Miss India
"I wonder which century your atoll dwellers are living in?"
We atoll dwellers are living in the same century as you in Delhi where five of your enlightened youth gang raped one of your sisters.
India is of course the largest and the shallowest demockercy
MissIndia New Delhi how about giving your rants a rest. Even your country is full of these stupidities, we can all have a good laugh about these stories from both our countries, but lets not play the high and mighty game
How much POWER do these Fanditha men actually have in Maldivian culture?
I am aware that any power that Sihuru (black magic) has to make anybody do anything or have illness or anything is psycho-somatic, but if you would please advise me, how many people are they capable of influencing?
In many countries, black magic practitioners have immense power, not that they literally control spirits or something, but the belief that the people are acculturated into from an early safe makes the people fear the black magic deeply.
Even today here in Australia, Indigenous Australians from remote communities enter psychiatric wards, because they yield to sickness and eventually death because sorcery has been performed on them. Yet, nothing is actually physically wrong with them, and they can be told again and again, its all in your mind, but the fear goes WAY DEEPER than THAT! They can't be SAVED!
Also, they use the fear of black magic to enforce silence on any who may challenge their sexual domination, sometimes over children ( sexual abuse.)
So, how powerful are Sihuru practitioners in the Islands, or rather, how much power does the society give them?
Someone please explain the dimension of this thing to me.
@MissIndia NewDelhi on Fri, 13th Sep 2013 12:04 PM
Just f**k off will you?
All kind of magic are there. In uk, witchcraft, in Australia Aborigines do their thing, in Maldives its Fanditha.
All kind of abuses also go on. In uk, its class discrimination (ask a scot, welsh and irish about English!) in Australia its racial discrimination of aborigines and chinese and of course in Maldives its political corruption. India its rape (2 kids raped every minute! - CNN latest)
Lets admit we are living in glass houses..
It pains me to see several Maldivians flocking to mock and denigrate themselves in response to an article written by a Western-Caucasian.
I hope the writer will not construe my comment on her race or her intentions but I find it regrettable that our youth find the need to attack our people, religion and culture in a desperate attempt to distance themselves from what they believe is a shameful affiliation to an Asian, spiritual, brown, third-world and Islamic country. All these labels have become negative over the course of years of colonial rule which has seen our political leadership getting rich and powerful by associating with Western-European conquerors.
I think we should realize now that we must stop being embarrassed with ourselves and do something to lift us out of the situation we are in. First and foremost is to take pride in belonging to our nation, race and culture. Our spirituality is a part of us and whether its scientific or not we must never abandon it entirely but keep it living in fond myths.
To move away from the current situation where sometimes we are held back by spiritual education and economic progress is the key. If we think by associating with affluent foreigners will lift us out of the common riff-raff and elevate us to a higher level we are wrong. We will stand and fall on the strength of our people.
*held back by spiritual beliefs
My hatred of spiritual oppression has nothing to do with denigrating culture. IF I discover that any "black magic" is used for sexual abuse of children, or for sexual domination, or for ANY evil intent then YES it needs to be outlawed and I will fight against it with all my strength no matter WHO was using it. How can you be so perverse to think I am denigrating Maldivian culture, or Aboriginal culture, by wanting to protect children!
For the record, I am not stating that this abuse I have fought against is part of traditional Aboriginal culture, it is more an ABUSE of it. Traditional Aboriginal mabran Men (spiritual healers) who use their powers for GOOD are the most inspirational spiritual people I have ever met.
I have seen a few little Fanditha healings also, I have experienced them! When I was really sick with Dengue fever in IGMH an Aunty said a special Ruqiyah prayer, an Islamically legitimate form of Fanditha I would say, with her hand on my forehead, and I believe the compassion helped in my healing process. SO I would never denigrate the Maldivian Islamic spiritual culture! I love it, esteem it, adore it!
I WILL fight against so called MAGIC used to sexually abuse people, however! All I am asking is, IS that the case, IF SO, I will fight it!