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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Jirga decides murder case by trial by fire |
| 2004-12-31 |
| A jirga, or local council, has declared a man guilty of murder and acquitted three others after making them walk on burning embers. The jirga in Muhammadpur Dewan, some 130 kilometres west of Multan, was called to decide if the four men were guilty of strangling an elderly woman, Sydan Mai, and stealing her gold earrings on September 25. Sydan Mai's son alleged that his relatives Saifullah, Murid Hussain, Shahnawaz Fareed and Shahnawaz Haider had committed the murder, but they denied the charge. The jirga asked them to prove their innocence by walking on embers. Some 160 kilograms of wood were burnt for their trial by fire. When the wood turned to embers, they were asked to walk on it. Before they began, prayer leader Maulvi Miandad recited a verse from the Holy Quran. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #9 The sad part is that medieval trials by ordeal are prolly an improvement on what went before. |
| Posted by: N Guard 2004-12-31 7:12:00 PM |
| #8 They do witches on Saturday nights. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-31 2:07:09 PM |
| #7 Seriously, these people need to come out of the 7th century. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-12-31 11:46:15 AM |
| #6 I can't wait to see more of CSI: Multan! |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-12-31 11:37:18 AM |
| #5 Actually, you can just plain walk on the ashes. Ashes have very low specific heat and poor thermal conductivity. Just make sure there isn't a stone or something in there. It's similar to being able to put your hand in a 350 degree oven without being burned if you don't touch metal, while 212 degree water will burn badly. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-12-31 10:48:49 AM |
| #4 The trick to walking on hot embers is to wet the bottom of the feet with water. The super hot embers will quickly boil the water under the feet to create a bubble shaped insulator. Try this experiment kids: 1. Heat a dry pan over a gas stove on high for about seven to ten minutes. 2. Then take a very very small hand full of water and sprinkle a liberal ( 3. You will notice that the water immediately forms a bubble insulator. This is what happens when someone walks on hot coals with wet feet. Next time you watch someone walk on hot coals, watch for that person to wipe their feet on the wet grass. |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2004-12-31 10:44:21 AM |
| #3 Feets don't fail me now... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-12-31 10:05:47 AM |
| #2 Can't get any more medieval than that! |
| Posted by: HV 2004-12-31 9:39:32 AM |
| #1 all in a days work for the ROP |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-12-31 8:43:20 AM |