Haunted Encounters: Jinns

Now I'm going to share with you an incident that was sent to us by someone whose many stories we have already broadcast. His name is Shihab. He lives in the Bandar area of Narayanganj. He is married in Nalguniya village of Taltali Upazila in Barguna district. The story is basically about this Nalguniya village. He went to his father-in-law's house some time ago. He usually visits every year. When he went, there's a stand before his in-laws' village where his brother-in-law usually comes to receive him. But when he arrived, he heard that he wasn't there, someone else was coming. So, when he asked what was the matter, where was his brother-in-law, the person who came, who was also a relative of Shihab's, a relative from his in-law's side, said that the brother was lying in bed with his arms and legs broken after fighting with a "pishach" (some kind of evil spirit/entity). Lying in bed with his arms and legs broken after fighting with a "pishach" - what does that mean? Let's hear everything from him. Anyway, when he went to his father-in-law's house, he saw that his brother-in-law was lying in bed with a broken arm and leg. During the conversation, a terrible incident came to light. I am now going to share that incident with you. The incident didn't happen too long ago, it can be said to be a fairly recent event. So, this brother-in-law of his has a habit, not a profession, but a habit, and that is, there is a river near their house. That river is a branch of the Payra River. He fishes there every day, whether it's at night or during the day, whenever it's convenient for him. He usually fishes more at night. There is a place there called Tin Mohona (Three Estuaries) in that river. Actually, it's not three estuaries, although it's called that, the place where three rivers meet. But it is basically that branch river that has divided into three directions. Some people call it the confluence of three rivers.

So, in that place, you can find a decent amount of fish. The river isn't very deep, it's a small river. And to enter that village, there's a small bamboo bridge or something like that over the river that you have to cross. So, he fishes there every night. And this Shihab bhai's father-in-law, he is also a very skilled *Kaviraj* (traditional healer). He's quite adept at exorcising spirits and ghosts, and all. Since he was a child, he's seen these things, so his brother-in-law actually had very little fear. He's always faced these small things, so it's nothing extraordinary to talk about. Anyway, what happened was, he was fishing that night. After fishing, when he was returning, he suddenly felt like someone was walking behind him. He looked back and saw no one. Then he understood that something like this might be happening, that some *Mecho Pishach* (fish-eating spirit) was following him for the fish. So he kept walking his own way, he was familiar with these things. After a while, suddenly from behind, it called him by name, and in a nasal, whiny voice said, "Hey, you caught a lot of fish today! Give me two fish." Then he, without turning his face, keeping his face straight, said, "Get lost from here! You won't get any fish." From behind, it said again, "Oh, come on, give me two fish!" He kept saying, "You won't get any fish." Like this, repeatedly it asked, he repeatedly refused, and like this he reached his house. Before he entered his house, there were two small palm trees, not big, not very old either. He saw that on those two adjacent palm trees, with two feet, hunched over, was a figure, a female figure, it was clear. It was standing there quite hunched over. Then it said to this Shihab bhai's brother-in-law, "Hey, I asked you for fish so many times, didn't you hear? Now you'll give me all your fish, leave this bag here, and then enter the house." Then he said again, "I didn't give you any then, and now I'm near my house, will I give you fish? You know my father, get lost from here quickly! And if you have so much courage, come, I'll fight you, come!" As soon as he said this, he saw that thing jump down from the palm tree.

And going down, before he could see her, it was like - *sa* - meaning, it seemed like with the wind, *sa* - she turned around and right on his back, I mean on the back of his neck, *dharam* - sat down hard. And she sat in such a way that suddenly pressure was applied to his body, and one of his legs broke. And then she started hitting him, but she didn’t really get a chance to hit him too much because next to him was another room, basically another place where there was a fish enclosure. An enclosure, meaning, in a part of the river they had laid out a large net. So, there was a man guarding it so that nobody would steal the fish. He would stay awake all night. Suddenly, he heard this noise, this *dhap-dhup* sound. He came out with a torch to see what was happening. At that time, there was moonlight. He could see that nearby, it seemed like someone was jumping around. Jumping around meaning, he saw a person, and he shone the torch light. It seemed like some invisible force, something that couldn't be seen, was constantly attacking this Shiyab brother. When he quickly went there, that thing left him and went away. Then he held him up and brought him home. After bringing him home, after seeing his condition, they gave him some care and service from the house. Meanwhile, his father, who is a *Kaviraj* (traditional healer), meaning Shiyab brother's father-in-law, then he summoned the *Jinn*. After summoning him, he said, "Why did you do this to my son? Don't you know he's my son?" He said, "Yes, I know. When I asked him for fish, he didn't give it to me. He couldn't even give me two fish." Then he's saying, "Yes, I know all about you guys. If you are given fish once, you will keep chasing after him all the time for fish. You cannot be given fish." It says, "I nicely asked him for fish, but he didn't give it. That's why I mainly attacked him. And he invited me to attack him, saying, 'Come, fight with me.' That's why I came. What's my fault? Now, let him go and I will leave. He has to give me four *Ilish* (Hilsa) fish."Then, this Shihab's father-in-law is saying, "Why four Hilsa fish? I won't even give you four Puti fish. Are you going to leave or will I imprison you?" He threatened her like this, and then he, well, he actually sent that witch away from there, well, banished her. So, this incident, in this incident, one of his hands and one of his legs were broken.

Now I am going to share an incident with you that was sent to us by Mohammad Liton Mia. His home is in HasanKhor village, under Kishorgari Union No. 1 of Palashbari Upazila in Gaibandha district. He mainly collected the incident from a grandfather figure, whose name is Abdul Hannan. We will address him as Dada (grandfather). Two true incidents happened with this Hannan Dada. He sent the first incident. It happened about 19-20 years ago. Liton Bhai (brother), then his elder brother, whose name is Nannu, and his cousin Firoz, these three collected this incident. Initially, they heard the incident from the villagers, from the mouths of the villagers. And to understand the entire matter more clearly, they primarily contacted this Hannan Dada. For several years in between, Hannan Dada was in Dhaka, so it wasn't possible to collect the incident from him. Last year, Hannan Dada came to the village from Dhaka. He currently resides in the village. A football tournament was organized in their village, and Hannan Dada came to watch the game. It was then that this Liton Bhai, along with the two others who were with him, the three of them, heard the incident from Dada. So, let's hear that incident. The year was 2004. To irrigate the land, this Hannan Dada bought the first shallow machine in their village, meaning HasanKhor village. Before that, there wasn't one. And he installed it on the riverbank and built a room there. Many of us call these boring houses. They locally refer to that river as Karatoya. Besides irrigating his own land, this Hannan Dada also irrigated others' land. This machine was installed before the paddy season started and after the season ended, he would disassemble the machine and bring it home. Naturally, people are needed to guard the machine.

For the sake of the story, it's good to know that they apparently have two cremation grounds there. One is permanent, and the other is temporary. The distance between these two cremation grounds is a 10 to 15-minute walk. And the machine was installed somewhere in between these two cremation grounds. So, it takes roughly the same time to get to either cremation ground from the machine room, about five to seven minutes or so. The temporary cremation ground, the place where it is, is locally called Magurjani. In this Magurjani area, besides cremating bodies, a couple of bodies are also buried instead of being cremated because of certain rules within the Hindu community; this is primarily why it's done. One woman died along with her twin babies, and she was buried here. Currently, though, this Magurjani cremation ground isn't used. The surrounding lands are now being cultivated. This Hannan Dada, he initially guarded the machine himself and, of course, was always coming and going. And while coming and going, he had to pass through Magurjani. So, Dada would usually have dinner and then go out with a three-battery flashlight to guard the machine. One day, while going, he saw a woman bathing her two children in Magurjani, in a place that was like a drain, or something like that. So, he said, "Why are you bathing the children so late at night? They'll catch a cold. Go, take them away." He said this and then left from there. He was a very brave man. Paranormal things or ordinary things, everything seemed the same to him, or rather, ordinary. And small, insignificant incidents used to happen to him from time to time. He had seen things, so he didn't pay much attention to them. He wasn't afraid either. Dada sometimes saw dogs much larger than normal standing in his path while walking that way. And sometimes, he saw very large dogs fighting and destroying the fields.

So, he (the grandfather) understood that these things were nothing, and the next morning the fields would be normal, with nothing wrong. And that's exactly what he saw – everything was normal. He had seen this happen at various times. Because Dada (grandfather) had quite a few tasks at home, he couldn't always go to guard the machine during that time. So, what did Hannan Dada do? He hired a man from the village on a seasonal contract, you could say – a seasonal contract to guard it for the whole season. So, a seasonal contract was agreed upon for guarding the machine. The brother of this Dada, the elder brother actually, was chosen to guard the machine. He would go after Asr (afternoon prayer), and after evening, Hannan Dada would bring him his dinner there. And Dada only did the job of watering the fields during the day. On the night of the incident, when Hannan Dada was bringing dinner to that brother, he met a person named Dulal. This Dulal was Hannan Dada's grandson through some village relation. At that time, this Dulal told Dada that he would take water for irrigation now. Dada was initially unwilling, but Dulal was adamant about taking the water. At one point, Dulal managed to convince Dada. There were several reasons why Dada was initially hesitant - his water line couldn't connect directly to his land. In villages, there are often different problems; some people object to others passing through their land, things like that. Anyway, before starting the irrigation, Dada told Dulal that when the irrigation was done, after the water had entered his land, if too much water entered, the paddy could be submerged. That's why he was told that a certain amount of water, there's a calculation of how much to let in, and then the soil has to be used to block it off again.

That's primarily why this Hannan Dada (respected elder brother) told that Dulal that when your water level is as full as it needs to be, whenever it's sufficient, then call me, definitely call me. At one point, what happened was that Dulal's water was all done, meaning he had provided as much water as needed in the field. Without saying anything, he completely forgot that he needed to call this Dada and inform him about the situation. So what did he do? He went home. Meanwhile, it was almost 2:30 AM. Dada went outside and called out to Dulal a lot, but there was no response. What else could Dada do? Seeing no other option, he explained everything to his watchmen and started walking towards home. Dada, instead of coming through Magurjani this time, started coming along the paddy field's boundary. When Dada reached halfway, he saw four men wearing Punjabi suits and caps, carrying a corpse's bier on their shoulders, heading towards the Magurjani area. He could see them clearly in the moonlight, even without a light. Not being afraid, Dada said to them, "Hey, who are you? Whose person from which house died at this hour? I didn't even know. Who are you, whose corpse is this?" Dada was talking to them alone. Dada noticed that they weren't saying anything, and because of Dada talking or asking questions, they weren't slowing down their pace either. Dada got angry, thinking, "What's going on? A person will die in the village, and we won't know? And if we ask, they won't tell us? What kind of manners is this? We all live together in the village. If someone dies, we should know." He had quite a bit of anger working inside him. He walked forward quite quickly in the direction the bier was being carried.

So, he went and was holding one of the handles of the bier, you know. There were four people, so four handles, and even after one person was holding it, quite a bit of the handle was still sticking out. So he grabbed one handle, I mean, this handle, and pulled it. "Hey, stop! Where are you going?" he said. "Whose corpse is this that you're carrying away without a word?" He pulled with all his might, but someone noticed that his strength wasn't doing any good. They kept walking at their own pace, and he couldn't stop them even an inch. Then what happened, grandpa? He started running after them, I mean, running behind them, and their walking speed suddenly increased. Grandpa couldn't keep up with their pace. Suddenly, Grandpa noticed, "Oh no!" He had stepped into the river, up to his waist in water. That's when Grandpa realized, "Oh my God, this isn't an ordinary corpse bier!" That was the first time in his life he was so terrified. Somehow, he quickly climbed out of the river. Grandpa developed a very high fever, which lasted for seven days. No medicine worked. Later, he consulted a *Kaviraj* (traditional healer), who performed some *Ruqyah* (Islamic healing prayers), and then, by the grace of God, Grandpa recovered. So, the *Kaviraj* said that if Grandpa had gone a little deeper into the water that day, those *Jinn* (spirits) would have killed him. It's true that there was a *Jinn's* corpse on that bier, and Grandpa somehow saw it. He wasn't supposed to see it. Basically, they were carrying the bier away because they were upset, and Grandpa kept calling out from behind. They were very angry. But it's true that they crossed the river and continued walking on the water. That's when Grandpa stepped into the river. However, they were so enraged because some more *Jinn* were waiting for them there by the river, you know. Because he was repeatedly bothering them, the *Jinn* said that this man had been bothering them for a long time. They were already in a bad mood, and somehow he had seen them and then kept bothering them like that. So, if Grandpa had gone a little further after getting waist-deep, the *Jinn* would have killed him right there. So that was the incident.