7 killed, 14 tortured by religious cult in Panama

A religious cult in Panama has been found murdering and torturing Ngabé Buglé indigenous women and children in what appear to a type of exorcism or conversion ritual.

Prosecutors in Panama became aware of a site where the bodies of six children and one pregnant woman were buried after three people who had been injured in the rituals visited a local clinic.

Ten members of the religious sect known as “The New Light of God” have been arrested for their involvement in the rituals. 

In a raid of the remote compound, police found 14 Ngabé Buglé indigenous people tied up. They had been beaten and some apparently suffered from burns.

Prosecutors have not specified what belief or affiliations “The New Light of God” church has. All that is known is they appeared to be holding what the media has referred to as exorcisms in an improvised church compound near the Caribbean side of Veraguas. 

The area was very remote, so much so that helicopters had to be used to access the site. Among those injured are children and at least two pregnant women.