| 1 | Police have arrested 11 villagers over the murder of a 10-year-old boy in southwestern Nepal, in what authorities are calling a case of human sacrifice. |
| 2 | Local media reports said the father of a sick teenager had last Tuesday lured away the 10-year-old, Jeevan Kohar, with a packet of biscuits and the promise of 50 rupees ($A1.07). |
| 3 | The suspect then reportedly slit the child's throat on the advice of a shaman, who said his own son's health would improve if he committed the crime. |
| 4 | According to a reports in The Kathmandu Post and The Himalayan Times, the man had confessed to the killing "to chase away the evil spirits" from his ailing son. |
| 5 | He believed his son was under the "spell of a ghost" who could only be "pacified with human flesh". |
| 6 | Police superintendent Nal Prasad Upadhyaya said the decomposed body of Kohar, who had been missing for three days, was recovered from a bush on Friday in Kudiya village in Nawalparasi district, which borders India. |
| 7 | "We have arrested 11 people, including four women, for murdering a ten-year-old boy," Upadhyaya said on Sunday. |
| 8 | "All the villagers say the boy was killed in a case of human sacrifice, because the suspects were superstitious and believed in witchcraft," he said. |
| 9 | Shaman healers and mystics are a common presence in the Himalayan nation, especially in remote villages with poor access to healthcare. |
| 10 | More than 80 percent of Nepal's 28 million people are Hindus. |
| 11 | Many frequently sacrifice animals like goats, buffaloes and roosters to appease the gods. |