Five people have been arrested in New Mexico after police raided a remote desert encampment and found 11 children living among potential Muslim extremists in “filthy” conditions.

The three women – mothers of the 11 children aged between one and 15 – and two men were all charged with child abuse.

One of the men, Siraj Wahhaj, 39, was wanted in his home state of Georgia for questioning over the disappearance of his three-year-old son, Abdul. Both father and son were last seen in December, when Wahhaj told his wife, Hakima Ramzi, that he was taking the boy to the park.

The boy's mother told police her child suffered from seizures along with development and cognitive delays.

Documents made public in a court filing on Monday said Wahhaj told the boy's mother, before fleeing Georgia, that he wanted to perform an exorcism on the child because he believed he was possessed by the devil. Abdul was unable to walk owing to his disability.