Ten people have been arrested in a raid after the bodies of six children and one adult were discovered and thought to be the victims of a radical religious sect.
Prosecutors in Panama said that the bodies were found in a hidden burial pit along a remote region of the country’s Caribbean coast. The six children ranged in age from 1 to 17, and the adult was pregnant, according to the Associated Press. All were members of Panama’s largest indigenous group, Ngabe Bugle.
Authorities said that “The New Light of God,” an evangelical religious sect, was responsible for the slayings.
Additionally, 14 other indigenous people were freed from one of the group’s camps. They were found tied up and had been tortured and beaten with bibles and wooden cudgels. Investigators said the killings and abuses are associated with some sort of exorcism and conversion rituals.
An established church in Panama called Luz del Mundo denounced the crimes and said it was not affiliated to those arrested for the rituals.
