Human sacrifice not ruled out

The headless body of a woman was recovered near the Kamakhya temple in Guwahati on Wednesday evening. Police are not ruling out the possibility of a human sacrifice. The body was recovered on the stairs leading to the Jai Durga temple, one of many places of worship scattered around Kamakhya temple on the Nilachal Hills.

The human sacrifice theory was triggered by flowers, burnt incense sticks and other items used for tantra practices found near the body.

“We are searching for the decapitated head with the help of a sniffer dog. It could be a case of human sacrifice since Kamakhya has had a history of such practice and is a prime place of congregation for tantra practitioners,” a police officer said.

“But we cannot jump to conclusions as the woman could have been murdered elsewhere and her body dumped here to make it look like a sacrifice. We can be sure after an autopsy,” he said.

The four-day long Ambubachi mela, beginning from June 22, is an annual fair marking the symbolic menstruation of Goddess Kamakhya.

Books by Lakshminath Bezbaroa and other Assamese writers say human sacrifice was a common practice at Kamakhya. This ritual was stopped during the British rule, but some priests carried on sacrificing dummies for some time.