Muslim occultist turns rich through egg-hurling

Muslim-majority Malappuram district is known for the presence of several faith-healers, but the ways such godmen and godwomen are created are a great mystery, say sociologists. Stories of many such faith-healers and mysterious occult practitioners are now coming out in the context of the State-wide hunt for the illegal financial and land deals of godmen after the arrest of Santosh Madhavan alias Amrita Chaitanya and Himeval Maheshwara Bhadranandan in Kochi.

After the allegations about faith healer Ustad Kareem of Kalamthode, Kozhikode, the hot story in the minority community in Malabar is that of Azagar Ali Thangal of Edapal, Malappuram. It is alleged that Thangal had amassed huge assets by cheating people with his occult practice of Muttayeru (egg-throwing) to help seekers win over enemies.

Till some years ago, Thangal was merely Azgar Ali, a debt-ridden young man of Edapal, who lived by selling anti-bug pesticides. He fled Edapal some years ago when the pesticide business crashed and he was neck-deep in debts. The reappearance of Azgar Ali was as Azgar Ali Thangal, a Muslim occultist who based his mysterious works on eggs.

A local resident in Edapal said that the Thangal would give the miracle-seeker an egg, touched with magical potions, to be thrown on the wall of the enemy’s house. When the egg hits the wall, a red fluid will ooze from the point of impact, which a local resident was sure was the effect of some chemical process.

The occult business had been a tremendous hit and within a short time Azgar Ali had earned crores of rupees by cheating people, local people said. It is reported that Azgar Ali owned property in Mysore, Bangalore, Ooty and Kochi.

Azgar Ali’s wife Ashnash says she does not know anything about the egg magic. She says she had not learned it as her husband told her she need not learn it. “I did not ask him about it after that. Why should I? I should learn it only if I want to practice it. Isn’t it?” she asks.

Meanwhile, police mounted surveillance over the palatial residence of Sunni Ustad Kareem, who was running a faith healing centre in Kalamthode, Kozhikode by curing miracle-seekers of diseases merely with prayer, though people said that he was also using water for the purpose.

Kareem came under the lens of police after he launched the faith-healing centre at the palatial house with high compound walls he had built after quitting his difficult cycle workshop business. Local people, who have so far been afraid of complaining against the faith-healing centre, have now registered complaints in the context of the State-wide hunt for godmen. Prominent among the outfits that are now agitating against the godman is the Solidarity Youth Movement.

Separate healing sessions are held in different halls for men and women at the facility of the Ustad. The Ustad himself provides food for those seek cure at his facility though he says he does not take any fees for the prayer-healing.

Ustad Kareem, a strict Sunni, had asked mediamen not to videograph him. He also does not like the ways of the reformists in the Muslim community. He has fixed a board at the entrance to his house asking Mujahids, Jama’at-e-Islami and Tablig believers to keep away.

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